And the countdown begins. Classes end on Wednesday. Thursday is the Behavioural practical, Friday morning is the Histology practical, and Friday afternoon is the Anatomy practical. Monday (Aug 6th) is Mini III and then the final is a week later on the 13th. So in two weeks, I will be done my first semester of med school. I don't want to get ahead of myself and say that these four months have flown by because I anticipate that these last two weeks will feel like four months on their own. So we'll avoid this topic now and go back to the standard recapping. But first, I'm going to switch the playlist from Study to Musicals..."a little fall of rain could hardly hurt me now"...music matches the weather - check. Go time.
Friday marked my fifth consecutive day and first completion of a full week of school where I did not attend all classes everyday. Nothing to brag about, just something to note. Our respiratory physiology prof is nice and smart, but his lecturing is something I can't jive with. I basically teach myself from the lecture notes and then supplement by mediasiting the lecture at 2x the speed (that's the beauty of mediasite). Walked home with Genny for lunch, headed back to the annex to get some work done, then headed to campus for the group practice problem sessions. We started off with a problem set based off Mini I and II material. Bad way to set the tone and it basically set it for the rest of the session. While going through the problems from the material from the week before, we couldn't get our brains working nearly enough. It was a painful session and all of us felt pretty stupid and frustrated. I remember turning to Harper halfway through and saying "Yeah, I'm definitely going out for dinner tonight" and he nodded in agreement. I'm sure if we cooked at home, our tears would be streaming into the dish. After the session, Harper and I walked to Golden Dragon for some consistently delicious Chinese food. I really needed some veggies so I ordered the garlic green bean dish in addition to my beef dish. The waitress asked with wide eyes "You're going to eat all of that?". I kindly informed her that I'd be taking leftovers home and all was well.
During the first 5 minutes of sitting at our table, my legs were bit three times by mosquitoes. What the heck!? I quickly put on some Deet-y goodness to avoid a fourth bite. Harper of course was unscathed. We talked about how things are winding up and the fact that a good chunk of students have dropped out within the last couple weeks. It hits harder now because I actually know who these people are. It's like I finally committed name and face to memory only to have my efforts be put to shame with their departure. Part of me wonders why they wouldn't stick it out 'til the end of the semester since they've already paid for it, but part of me completely relates to the desire to get the hell out of here as soon as possible. There are others that I've spoken to that say they won't come back once the semester's done. And of course there are others that won't come back because they won't be invited to or they don't want to repeat semester 1. Suffice it to say, it'll be interesting to see how things play out during the break. I mean, what if you discover that you've failed out or that you have to redo the semester? I'm not worried about that happening to me, but the fact is this situation is going to happen to multiple students and that's frightening and sucky that we won't figure it out until the first class of semester 2. Most of the people that I've connected to here are in safe territory. So I'm not concerned that all my friends will be gone come September, but there are those people that you don't quite know yet but would like to and you're not sure if you'll get the opportunity. The silver lining is that putting names to faces will get easier as the class gets smaller.
After dinner, I headed home to change into some warmer clothes and spent a few hours at the annex before meeting Esther at 9:50 for the Bible study group at Priya's. Her group is mainly 3rd and 4th semesters. They had a 1st but alas, she left the island weeks ago. We watched a webcast of a sermon from her church in Chicago (Harvest Bible Chapel) where the speaker talked about forgiveness. It was a really good sermon and I encourage you to check it out. We followed it up with some discussion, wrapped up by 11:30, and I was able to catch the shuttle back home.
Saturday, I had a Mocktical (which if you recall from previous posts is a fake anatomy practical). I hadn't prepared for it at all, so it was less about guessing the answers and more about using the answer sheet to write down concepts. It does me no good to write "S1" or "vertical group of superficial inguinal lymph nodes". It does me good to write "dermatomes of the foot" or "lymph drainage of the lower limb" instead because I'll know what I need to study. So now I have an answer sheet where I don't give a rip about what I got wrong or right, all I look for are statements like "muscle attachments on the pelvis" and "contents in the greater and lesser sciatic foramen" (evidently osteology of the pelvis is not my strong suit). Harper was in my group for taking the Mocktical so we left at the same time and headed to IGA to do some grocery shopping. Mid-way through we decided we'd make dinner together and decided on tacos. They had 5-layer dip and it's the first time we've seen it there so that was the determining factor. Sometimes you go in with the intention of getting ingredients to make a certain meal and are incredibly disappointed when their out of stock of a few key items. So the 5-layer dip was a huge sign to us that we'd be having tacos (that and the fact that they actually had ground beef).
Headed home to Skype with the parents who are vacationing in Oregon. It's good that they get some rest before things start getting hectic with moving out of the Delta house and also getting Justin settled in Alberta. August will be a crazy month for them. In that regard, it's a good thing I'm not coming home 'til December when everybody's all settled in their perspective places. I quickly showered and then Skyped with Alison. Yet another family member with a crazy August on the horizon and again, she'll be all settled come December. It'll be kinda neat to have at least three of us (Justin, Alison, me, and maybe Aunt Karen, Uncle Keith, and Andrew) flying home for Christmas. Definitely a new thing, and potentially a trend. What can I say, we're growing up and the family unit is branching out. But don't worry Vancouver, you're still the best city in my heart. You stay classy while I'm gone.
I only had a couple hours to play with before I needed to head to Harper's to prepare dinner (I asked for an early dinner so that I could spend a good chunk of time at the annex afterward). So I stayed in the house and did some work there instead. By 5, I packed up the groceries I bought and headed to Harper's. He lives a short walk away, maybe 5 minutes, but the heat will always make you think the trek is at least twice as long. Thank God he had his fan on by the time I got there. I strategically walked by the breeze frequently, which was silly of me as I'd be spending the next few minutes by the gas stove cooking the beef. I also didn't know how much of a sweat I could work up grating cheese. Oh Dominica. The meal was delicious and we enjoyed it by the fan while watching Back to the Future on tv. Can never have too much of Michael J Fox. While we're on that, and if you've decided you like Scrubs, you should check out the episodes he guest starred in. Amazing! After dinner, I headed home to grab my gear and study in the annex where Harper showed up later as well.
Sunday morning was a nice sunny day. A standard church day. The service ended a bit early again, so they played a few more songs which was nice. Chris decided to take off during the extra songs so I chatted with people. Gave out a few side hugs with the standard 2-3 blessing pats (read "Stuff Christians Like" by Jon Acuff, it's hilarious). Then lunch on the Subway deck with Esther, the usual crew, and a few others like Amy. It's hard to complain about med school when you're surrounded by such cool people that make your heart smile. After that, it was a study filled day. The review for the Mocktical took place in the annex from 5-6pm. I was too lazy to get up and leave so I kept the ear buds in and kept working on my problem sets. Admittedly, I still found myself distracted. There was one girl who was trigger happy with the mic. It felt like there was a continuous conversation going on between her and the moderator for the entire session, except this girl doesn't have the confidence so all her lines are these quiet mumbled statements which makes things awkward for everybody. After the mass exodus following the review, I got back to my problems, then headed home to eat dinner and change, and then back to the annex where I hung out until 1am. As I got ready for bed a storm was brewing outside complete with thunder and lightning. You could see it through your closed eyelids. Eventually, my weariness won out and sleep was had.
The alarm went off at 9am and the thunder was still audible and the rain was less pronounced. The water was off as to be expected. So I got ready Haitian style: bottled water, and a wet-wipe bath. Headed to main campus for the last PAcE quiz of the semester. It proved to be the liveliest session due to answer key errors and question stem errors. I had a good group which I termed the "dream team" (simply to boost morale, I'll likely call any group I'm a part of the "dream team", but they don't need to know that). In this case, we really were the dream team. Throughout the course of PAcE, our team has climbed to the top to claim first place based off group quiz scores. What makes it better is that we accomplished this without having any arguments or aggressive confrontations with each other. We worked well together. Again, it makes me wish we could pick our teams so that we could be together next semester. Once the session ended, Genny and I walked home together. She's moving to a different region from where I'm moving, so I'll miss our walks come next semester. I'll likely find another walking buddy or two for the new semester, but nonetheless, I'll miss her and her sense of humour.
Arrived to a home with running water. Showered up and cooked up some eggs for lunch (I bypassed getting groceries to continue the walk and conversation with Genny) then headed to the annex to mediasite the lectures I missed. There was a cardio review session at 6 at the main campus so Harper and I made plans to go to dinner afterward. It was a good session and most of the class showed up. The room was packed. I sat at a table with Angela and Yezi. It's always great to see them. Harper and I got our Schwarma King falafel on. Janos and Kat were there as well and we got to hug it out and chat it up. Food was eaten and now I find myself in the familiar confines of the annex (except I smell like garlic and onions). Got an email from my Deutsch parents who happen to be vacationing much like my biological parents. Just to clarify my Deutsch parents are the Deutschs (Peter & Caroline). My German parents are the Krauses (Peter & Darlene). I know it can get a bit confusing with "Deutsch" and "German" and the two Peters, but you don't need to understand. I've got it straight in my head and that's all that matters. I wouldn't be surprised if my German parents were out of town either (perhaps in Shuswap or Alberta helping with the move?). Anyways, Pop, I'm glad you're enjoying the wine, crepes, baguettes, and smelly cheeses. I'm happier that you and mom are enjoying the life and taking advantage of the opportunity to breathe it all in. Feel free to stop by Dominica on your way home and do tell me how a Frenchman eats a hamburger (in my head, that "h" was silent, you'd be so proud).
To the rest of you, hope you're enjoying the summer. Thanks for the prayers and support. I'll get back at ya with a quick post next Monday after the mini.
Monday, 30 July 2012
Thursday, 26 July 2012
Might as well throw one out there
Because our new physiology prof is hard to endure and he was the first two lectures of the day, I opted to go over the info Sunday night while burning the midnight oil and then slept in Monday morning. I used to think having your landlord live in the same building was a good thing, you know, to get issues fixed immediately. Monday morning was a rude reminder that it's not always a good thing. His family is huge and the kids are so young with the exception of one very adult son. Needless to say, I assume a few of the kids were playing outside when all of a sudden, I hear my landlord yell from inside the house (they're one floor below me). He is a loud man. He then started disciplining the kids with his yelling voice and crying ensued. He has easily at least two kids that are at that age where tantrum throwing is a strategy (a horrible strategy) and so it made for a very emotional and disruptive wake up call. I had a dream that it was December and I was at the Deutsch residence visiting with the family. It got weird when friends from high school started showing up at the house. People I haven't seen since graduation and don't keep in touch with at all. It was odd, not to mention interrupting cuddle time (and that is not something you do, heed this warning well).
Got to the annex for the 10am lecture and was able to stay focused 'til noon. Left my stuff in the annex and walked home with Genny to grab some lunch. We had a mandatory lecture to attend at 1. It was on Reflection and developing your Emotional IQ to become a proficient doctor. The lecturer opened with a clip from Scrubs which is awesome (as I'm sure you can tell by how many times I post YouTube links of it in my blog). Before lecture started, Chris mentioned that he hated Scrubs and that House was way better (and that is not something you do, heed this warning well). Naturally, I disagreed with him and did not have the energy to get into an argument with him about it. The shows are completely different. So I don't think it's fair to really compare them. What I will do here though, is say that Scrubs is underrated. Most people know it for being this silly quirky comedy, and it's true. I think it's hilarious, but there are some great episodes in every season that have pulled on my heart strings. It's the only TV show that I've watched from when it first started to when it ended. Every other show that I've come to love, I latched on to after it started and had to backtrack to the pilot. I remember when the show first started, I was unsure if I was going to stick with it. I found it funny, but I still had "Friends" to meet my funny quota. Three weeks into its run, the episode "My Old Lady" aired. SPOILER ALERT! Early in the episode, JD (the protagonist) references a statistic that with the exception of the maternity and emergency wards, one in three patients admitted into the hospital dies. The episode then follows three of the main characters and their new patients. Long story short, they all die in the end. As absurd as it sounds, this episode affirmed my desire to be a doctor. I was so moved by all the interactions that took place. Seriously, I do highly recommend the show, as long as adult humour doesn't offend you. I have all the DVDs, and I think Deen is babysitting them for me. So if you know her, feel free to ask her for the first season (technically I have two of those). Or if you're just interested in watching the episode I'm talking about, here is part 1 and here is part 2. I'm not a fan of watching entire TV shows online without commercials or without paying for it, so consider this the only time I give this to you. Hopefully, you'll come to enjoy the show and purchase the hard copy DVD or online via iTunes or the like. If you are an online streamer, then watch the shows on the network website (Global TV, CTV, and City TV for Canadians). It's the ethical way to steam media online. The commercials are short and you count towards ratings which lets the networks know that it's viewed and hopefully they'll keep the show on air. Just please don't be one of those people who gets upset that your show is being cancelled when you've been watching it illegally the entire time. You don't really have a foot to stand on.
After lecture, I got my study on and I got it on good. I mediasited the lectures I missed and went over the TCA cycle in satisfying detail. It got close to dinner time so I messaged the DJ crew and we agreed to meet up at Tomatoes @ 7:30. It was great to spend time with them and enjoy their company. I had a black bean burger and it was delicious! After dinner, I went home, changed, and headed back to the annex. It was a very productive day for me. Given that the schedule for Tuesday looked similar to Monday's, I knew I was going to sleep in again so I stayed 'til 1am. At around 12:30, Tanja came up to ask me a question about the property of compliance. Tanja's an awesome person. She gives anybody and everybody the time of day which is refreshing to see. Not once have I seen her be mean spirited toward someone. I know she gets annoyed by some things that some people do, but it doesn't show. She endures it. I can't really imagine anybody not liking her and I think that's what makes her special. She's someone who lives at peace with others as much as possible. It's actually really humbling for me.
Tuesday, I showed up to class at 10 again. Didn't seem like I missed out on much, almost seemed like I didn't need to come to class at all. Oh well. Upon arriving home to a clean apartment, I called Martha (my laundry lady) to request a pick-up. I was expecting pick-up in the evening, but she asked if I was going to be home for the next hour or so. I hung out home and ate some peanuts (the late breakfast threw my stomach off a bit), she got my laundry, and then I went to lab demo to look at the inside of the heart. I quickly took off to sign up for a cardio-respiratory lab that was taking place on Wednesday and the deadline to sign up was 2pm. I left the lab at 1:50, changed like a mad man, and booked it to the physio offices. On my way, another girl asked if I knew where the physio offices were, and I told her I was looking for the same thing. She was surprised by my response and asked "Wait, are you in first semester?" and I replied that I was. She quickly outstretched her hand and introduced herself as Sarah. It was a neat interaction and introduction. A reminder that our class is huge and that I probably only know 50% of them. Hands shaken, pleasantries exchanged, we signed up and agreed that we'd be each others partner for the lab. Then we went our separate ways.
Grabbed some groceries on the way home. It was stinking hot that day. Literally. The stench of baking garbage was hanging in the hot air. The walk home was strenuous and called for an immediate shower as sweat was dripping off my face as I unpacked the groceries. Upon exiting the shower, the fan needed to be on so that I wouldn't start sweating all over again. Ate a proper lunch and lounged in front of the fan with the good tunes playing. Around 5:30, I figured I'd cook dinner and stuff it down so that I could go to the annex and stay there 'til I was ready for sleep. At 5:45, I got a call from Martha asking if I was home so that she could drop off my clean clothes. That's record time! I was so impressed. I ate my dinner, got my clothes, put them in their proper places, geared up, and headed to the annex and stayed there 'til midnight.
Woke up at 9:30, ate breakfast, and headed down to the cardio-resp lab. Turns out you didn't need a partner. All they needed was a volunteer to hook the apparatus up to and then run a bunch of tests. It was interesting to see all of it, but ultimately felt a bit like a waste of time, not to mention disappointing that it wasn't nearly as interactive as I hoped it'd be. Walked home, showered, headed to the annex to get some work done then headed to my last PBL session of the semester. Part of this session was that we'd have to say a positive and a negative aspect of our involvement in PBL and then do the same for another member in our group. Our group gets along well and has never had issues of conflict like other groups have had so it was a tough task. We either made up a silly negative attribute for each other (for instance a negative thing about me was that I brought cookies to the session and thus attracted ants) or the negative attribute was utilized to encourage the person (for instance I felt that one of our girls seemed like she wasn't confident that her contributions were of worth to the team, when in actuality she offers great research). So it was a tough exercise but we made it work for us and it was a nice way to end things on. We won't be in the same group next semester and we won't have the same facilitator so hopefully next semester's group will be reminiscent of this semester's.
During the walk home, a classmate (who I recognize and have spoken to many times, but for the life of me cannot remember her name) joined me halfway. We chatted about our PBL groups and whatnot and then parted ways (she lives a minute away from my apartment). I needed to take another shower and then decided to do some laundry (I don't send my delicates to Martha, because...they're delicate). After that, I cooked up some dinner, did the dishes, grabbed my gear and headed to the annex.
Do you remember that phenomenon I mentioned a while back with the flying ants? So it doesn't apply just to the annex bathrooms. It applies to any place with fluorescent white lights and the peak hours are around 7-8pm. I say peak to indicate that the majority of the ants are alive and flying in swarms around the light. The apartment is lit with fluorescent lights, but I normally don't use them and not for extended periods of time. There were a couple days where I cooked dinner after the sun went down and had the light on and soon discovered a number of flying ants on the counter and kitchen floor and then out came the bug spray. I've learned now that if I'm going to cook dinner, it needs to happen early while there's still sunlight. Anyways, whenever if it's been raining at night or cooler, there are far fewer ants around the peak hours. After a couple hot days with minimal rain, the batch of ants that appear is frightening. I usually can plan it such that I'm at the annex either before or after the peak, but on this particular night, I left the apartment during the peak. There's a flight of stairs I need to ascend in order to go anywhere, and at the top of the flight there's a large fluorescent light. I looked up from the bottom of the stairs, and seriously considered heading back into my apartment. The top three stairs were black and there was a cloud of black hovering around the light. I wish I had a flamethrower. I put on my hoodie, tightened the straps of my backpack, took a few steps back, and then ran as fast as possible up the stairs. I shudder just thinking about it. Just one of the worst things ever. I hate ants! I have no problem killing mosquitoes or spiders, but when you're dealing with a swarm or colony, I can't handle it. If they're in my house, I need to figure out where they come from, and kill all of them. If you've ever lived with me, you'll know that I've created ramps for ant traps so that they have better access to the poison, you'll also know that I'd have a powdered poison to spread along cracks and doorways, and then bug spray to kill immediately. I cover all bases when it comes to ants. But here, I don't have the same arsenal and they have fricking wings!!!! It just complicates everything and so I switch from fight to flight. Once I had run about 10 meters from the cloud, I did a little dance to shake off any that would be on me. I took my backpack off and shook it violently, then I took my hoodie off and whipped it around in the air. It'd be a bad time for someone to go out on their balcony for some fresh air, well, bad for me, hilarious for them. I stuck around the annex 'til midnight because I knew I could sleep in again, and to make sure that ample time had passed such that those stinking ants would be long dead by the time I got home. I also didn't dare go to the bathroom at the annex either (I secretly hoped my lizard friend would be there feasting) because opening the doors to the annex means opening the doors for ants to come into a fluorescent paradise and they throw your groove off while you're studying. And yes, I just spent that amount of time and words talking about ants because it was that traumatic and troubling.
Last Sunday after the 4th Semester presentation, I got to talking to one of the 4ths. Her name is Priya. Not going to lie, her articulation was what appealed to me. She was one of the few speakers who kept you engaged, didn't stutter, and was calm yet had the emotion. Esther and I chatted with her for a good while. I've since been interacting with her on Facebook. She hosts a ladies bible study Friday nights to which she's invited me to. Since the semester's almost over and she'll be on her way out of here soon, I figure it'd be a good thing to take in two studies and get to know some people before they leave. So I'm looking forward to that.
I found out last Saturday from my Skype session with mom that the house had sold. I don't know why I didn't mention it in the last post (probably because I didn't want to steal her thunder). Anyways, come September a new family will be living in my childhood house making their own memories. The couple have two daughters, one going to Seaquam and one to Cougar Canyon. I'm secretly hoping the younger one stays in my room and appreciates the massive constellation of glow-in-the-dark stars and planets I put up on my ceiling. It was a labour of love. I loved glow-in-the-dark (GITD) stuff (still do, check out the egg shakers I left in the sound equipment room). For sleepovers, we'd put up stars and write on the wall with GITD ink. Shortly before leaving, my parents were going to take the wallpaper off in my bedroom, but the upper half of the walls were already neutral so they didn't think they needed to be painted. I had to kindly inform them that they needed to paint because once the lights go out, all kinds of writing would be illuminated. Stuff like "KY + EK + TD = BFF", "RP + KY = FF", and "Mrs. Yip-O'Connor". The things that make you laugh and smile at the life captured on these walls. So the walls have been covered up, the carpet that had the permadents of a well used drum kit has been ripped up and replaced, the BSB and Aladdin posters have been recycled, the only trace left of me in that room are those stickers. I hope they stay up and more than that, I hope she builds on it and covers more of the ceiling.
Today was a day that I could have technically skipped class altogether, but I felt bad so I attended lectures from 10-noon, two hours of physio. Bad decision. I could focus for the first hour, but after that, game over. This guy just can't keep us interested. For the last hour of lecture, I put in my ear buds and watched some prosection videos to prepare for lab dissection. It's our last lab - the superior and posterior mediastinum. Admittedly, once you've dissected the heart, you find yourself bored with everything else. Nonetheless, we got the job done. We had demo right after and then I had my lab TA session from 5-7. So I spent 5 hours in lab. It was tiring and I reeked of formaldehyde. Got home to shower and get the stench off me, nuked some leftovers, then headed to the annex. I just got bit by a mosquito behind my knee. I haven't had a bite in over a week! I'm not too pleased right now and would very much like to pack up and go home so that I'm not a sitting duck waiting for more bites. So that's what I'm going to do.
You'll likely hear from me after early next week (maybe Monday) and then the next Monday as I'll be studying for practicals and exams.
Have a great weekend!
Got to the annex for the 10am lecture and was able to stay focused 'til noon. Left my stuff in the annex and walked home with Genny to grab some lunch. We had a mandatory lecture to attend at 1. It was on Reflection and developing your Emotional IQ to become a proficient doctor. The lecturer opened with a clip from Scrubs which is awesome (as I'm sure you can tell by how many times I post YouTube links of it in my blog). Before lecture started, Chris mentioned that he hated Scrubs and that House was way better (and that is not something you do, heed this warning well). Naturally, I disagreed with him and did not have the energy to get into an argument with him about it. The shows are completely different. So I don't think it's fair to really compare them. What I will do here though, is say that Scrubs is underrated. Most people know it for being this silly quirky comedy, and it's true. I think it's hilarious, but there are some great episodes in every season that have pulled on my heart strings. It's the only TV show that I've watched from when it first started to when it ended. Every other show that I've come to love, I latched on to after it started and had to backtrack to the pilot. I remember when the show first started, I was unsure if I was going to stick with it. I found it funny, but I still had "Friends" to meet my funny quota. Three weeks into its run, the episode "My Old Lady" aired. SPOILER ALERT! Early in the episode, JD (the protagonist) references a statistic that with the exception of the maternity and emergency wards, one in three patients admitted into the hospital dies. The episode then follows three of the main characters and their new patients. Long story short, they all die in the end. As absurd as it sounds, this episode affirmed my desire to be a doctor. I was so moved by all the interactions that took place. Seriously, I do highly recommend the show, as long as adult humour doesn't offend you. I have all the DVDs, and I think Deen is babysitting them for me. So if you know her, feel free to ask her for the first season (technically I have two of those). Or if you're just interested in watching the episode I'm talking about, here is part 1 and here is part 2. I'm not a fan of watching entire TV shows online without commercials or without paying for it, so consider this the only time I give this to you. Hopefully, you'll come to enjoy the show and purchase the hard copy DVD or online via iTunes or the like. If you are an online streamer, then watch the shows on the network website (Global TV, CTV, and City TV for Canadians). It's the ethical way to steam media online. The commercials are short and you count towards ratings which lets the networks know that it's viewed and hopefully they'll keep the show on air. Just please don't be one of those people who gets upset that your show is being cancelled when you've been watching it illegally the entire time. You don't really have a foot to stand on.
After lecture, I got my study on and I got it on good. I mediasited the lectures I missed and went over the TCA cycle in satisfying detail. It got close to dinner time so I messaged the DJ crew and we agreed to meet up at Tomatoes @ 7:30. It was great to spend time with them and enjoy their company. I had a black bean burger and it was delicious! After dinner, I went home, changed, and headed back to the annex. It was a very productive day for me. Given that the schedule for Tuesday looked similar to Monday's, I knew I was going to sleep in again so I stayed 'til 1am. At around 12:30, Tanja came up to ask me a question about the property of compliance. Tanja's an awesome person. She gives anybody and everybody the time of day which is refreshing to see. Not once have I seen her be mean spirited toward someone. I know she gets annoyed by some things that some people do, but it doesn't show. She endures it. I can't really imagine anybody not liking her and I think that's what makes her special. She's someone who lives at peace with others as much as possible. It's actually really humbling for me.
Tuesday, I showed up to class at 10 again. Didn't seem like I missed out on much, almost seemed like I didn't need to come to class at all. Oh well. Upon arriving home to a clean apartment, I called Martha (my laundry lady) to request a pick-up. I was expecting pick-up in the evening, but she asked if I was going to be home for the next hour or so. I hung out home and ate some peanuts (the late breakfast threw my stomach off a bit), she got my laundry, and then I went to lab demo to look at the inside of the heart. I quickly took off to sign up for a cardio-respiratory lab that was taking place on Wednesday and the deadline to sign up was 2pm. I left the lab at 1:50, changed like a mad man, and booked it to the physio offices. On my way, another girl asked if I knew where the physio offices were, and I told her I was looking for the same thing. She was surprised by my response and asked "Wait, are you in first semester?" and I replied that I was. She quickly outstretched her hand and introduced herself as Sarah. It was a neat interaction and introduction. A reminder that our class is huge and that I probably only know 50% of them. Hands shaken, pleasantries exchanged, we signed up and agreed that we'd be each others partner for the lab. Then we went our separate ways.
Grabbed some groceries on the way home. It was stinking hot that day. Literally. The stench of baking garbage was hanging in the hot air. The walk home was strenuous and called for an immediate shower as sweat was dripping off my face as I unpacked the groceries. Upon exiting the shower, the fan needed to be on so that I wouldn't start sweating all over again. Ate a proper lunch and lounged in front of the fan with the good tunes playing. Around 5:30, I figured I'd cook dinner and stuff it down so that I could go to the annex and stay there 'til I was ready for sleep. At 5:45, I got a call from Martha asking if I was home so that she could drop off my clean clothes. That's record time! I was so impressed. I ate my dinner, got my clothes, put them in their proper places, geared up, and headed to the annex and stayed there 'til midnight.
Woke up at 9:30, ate breakfast, and headed down to the cardio-resp lab. Turns out you didn't need a partner. All they needed was a volunteer to hook the apparatus up to and then run a bunch of tests. It was interesting to see all of it, but ultimately felt a bit like a waste of time, not to mention disappointing that it wasn't nearly as interactive as I hoped it'd be. Walked home, showered, headed to the annex to get some work done then headed to my last PBL session of the semester. Part of this session was that we'd have to say a positive and a negative aspect of our involvement in PBL and then do the same for another member in our group. Our group gets along well and has never had issues of conflict like other groups have had so it was a tough task. We either made up a silly negative attribute for each other (for instance a negative thing about me was that I brought cookies to the session and thus attracted ants) or the negative attribute was utilized to encourage the person (for instance I felt that one of our girls seemed like she wasn't confident that her contributions were of worth to the team, when in actuality she offers great research). So it was a tough exercise but we made it work for us and it was a nice way to end things on. We won't be in the same group next semester and we won't have the same facilitator so hopefully next semester's group will be reminiscent of this semester's.
During the walk home, a classmate (who I recognize and have spoken to many times, but for the life of me cannot remember her name) joined me halfway. We chatted about our PBL groups and whatnot and then parted ways (she lives a minute away from my apartment). I needed to take another shower and then decided to do some laundry (I don't send my delicates to Martha, because...they're delicate). After that, I cooked up some dinner, did the dishes, grabbed my gear and headed to the annex.
Do you remember that phenomenon I mentioned a while back with the flying ants? So it doesn't apply just to the annex bathrooms. It applies to any place with fluorescent white lights and the peak hours are around 7-8pm. I say peak to indicate that the majority of the ants are alive and flying in swarms around the light. The apartment is lit with fluorescent lights, but I normally don't use them and not for extended periods of time. There were a couple days where I cooked dinner after the sun went down and had the light on and soon discovered a number of flying ants on the counter and kitchen floor and then out came the bug spray. I've learned now that if I'm going to cook dinner, it needs to happen early while there's still sunlight. Anyways, whenever if it's been raining at night or cooler, there are far fewer ants around the peak hours. After a couple hot days with minimal rain, the batch of ants that appear is frightening. I usually can plan it such that I'm at the annex either before or after the peak, but on this particular night, I left the apartment during the peak. There's a flight of stairs I need to ascend in order to go anywhere, and at the top of the flight there's a large fluorescent light. I looked up from the bottom of the stairs, and seriously considered heading back into my apartment. The top three stairs were black and there was a cloud of black hovering around the light. I wish I had a flamethrower. I put on my hoodie, tightened the straps of my backpack, took a few steps back, and then ran as fast as possible up the stairs. I shudder just thinking about it. Just one of the worst things ever. I hate ants! I have no problem killing mosquitoes or spiders, but when you're dealing with a swarm or colony, I can't handle it. If they're in my house, I need to figure out where they come from, and kill all of them. If you've ever lived with me, you'll know that I've created ramps for ant traps so that they have better access to the poison, you'll also know that I'd have a powdered poison to spread along cracks and doorways, and then bug spray to kill immediately. I cover all bases when it comes to ants. But here, I don't have the same arsenal and they have fricking wings!!!! It just complicates everything and so I switch from fight to flight. Once I had run about 10 meters from the cloud, I did a little dance to shake off any that would be on me. I took my backpack off and shook it violently, then I took my hoodie off and whipped it around in the air. It'd be a bad time for someone to go out on their balcony for some fresh air, well, bad for me, hilarious for them. I stuck around the annex 'til midnight because I knew I could sleep in again, and to make sure that ample time had passed such that those stinking ants would be long dead by the time I got home. I also didn't dare go to the bathroom at the annex either (I secretly hoped my lizard friend would be there feasting) because opening the doors to the annex means opening the doors for ants to come into a fluorescent paradise and they throw your groove off while you're studying. And yes, I just spent that amount of time and words talking about ants because it was that traumatic and troubling.
Last Sunday after the 4th Semester presentation, I got to talking to one of the 4ths. Her name is Priya. Not going to lie, her articulation was what appealed to me. She was one of the few speakers who kept you engaged, didn't stutter, and was calm yet had the emotion. Esther and I chatted with her for a good while. I've since been interacting with her on Facebook. She hosts a ladies bible study Friday nights to which she's invited me to. Since the semester's almost over and she'll be on her way out of here soon, I figure it'd be a good thing to take in two studies and get to know some people before they leave. So I'm looking forward to that.
I found out last Saturday from my Skype session with mom that the house had sold. I don't know why I didn't mention it in the last post (probably because I didn't want to steal her thunder). Anyways, come September a new family will be living in my childhood house making their own memories. The couple have two daughters, one going to Seaquam and one to Cougar Canyon. I'm secretly hoping the younger one stays in my room and appreciates the massive constellation of glow-in-the-dark stars and planets I put up on my ceiling. It was a labour of love. I loved glow-in-the-dark (GITD) stuff (still do, check out the egg shakers I left in the sound equipment room). For sleepovers, we'd put up stars and write on the wall with GITD ink. Shortly before leaving, my parents were going to take the wallpaper off in my bedroom, but the upper half of the walls were already neutral so they didn't think they needed to be painted. I had to kindly inform them that they needed to paint because once the lights go out, all kinds of writing would be illuminated. Stuff like "KY + EK + TD = BFF", "RP + KY = FF", and "Mrs. Yip-O'Connor". The things that make you laugh and smile at the life captured on these walls. So the walls have been covered up, the carpet that had the permadents of a well used drum kit has been ripped up and replaced, the BSB and Aladdin posters have been recycled, the only trace left of me in that room are those stickers. I hope they stay up and more than that, I hope she builds on it and covers more of the ceiling.
Today was a day that I could have technically skipped class altogether, but I felt bad so I attended lectures from 10-noon, two hours of physio. Bad decision. I could focus for the first hour, but after that, game over. This guy just can't keep us interested. For the last hour of lecture, I put in my ear buds and watched some prosection videos to prepare for lab dissection. It's our last lab - the superior and posterior mediastinum. Admittedly, once you've dissected the heart, you find yourself bored with everything else. Nonetheless, we got the job done. We had demo right after and then I had my lab TA session from 5-7. So I spent 5 hours in lab. It was tiring and I reeked of formaldehyde. Got home to shower and get the stench off me, nuked some leftovers, then headed to the annex. I just got bit by a mosquito behind my knee. I haven't had a bite in over a week! I'm not too pleased right now and would very much like to pack up and go home so that I'm not a sitting duck waiting for more bites. So that's what I'm going to do.
You'll likely hear from me after early next week (maybe Monday) and then the next Monday as I'll be studying for practicals and exams.
Have a great weekend!
Sunday, 22 July 2012
Little Nuggets
Friday was a difficult day to get up again. It's weird because I went to bed at a decent hour and recall a lot of dreams (Deen, I apparently miss you like crazy because you consistently appear in them). I guess it's just that time where you know the semester's almost over and you're trying to get to August 13th. Another rain filled day that had me getting a bit wet as I headed to class. We were introduced to a new physio professor who will take us through the respiratory system. I miss Dr. Sheakley. We had this new guy for 3 straight hours and I nodded in and out for all three. The last lecture was on respiratory epidemics and all I could think of was an incredible desire to play Pandemic with the Dunbar girls. Such a fun game. Maybe even better than Settlers. I think I like the teamwork aspect.
While Genny and I walked home we both expressed how happy we were that it was Friday. A time to catch up on sleep and studying and maybe even out our tans. It's funny because when she Skypes with her family, they say she looks pale and ask if she's well, whereas my parents ask if I'm wearing sunscreen. We chatted about soccer as well. She's subbed a bit for the OBGYN team but I haven't played them while she's been on the team. Maybe we'll see each other in the playoffs, if we both make the playoffs that is.
While eating lunch, I checked my email and saw that application forms were sent out to those wanting to be on the Welcome Committee for the break. I definitely want to be a part of that so I filled it out and sent it back. After that, I headed to main campus for a group practice problem session. I was with a different group of students that times before and it was a pretty quiet crew. Time seemed to drag on and on and finally we decided we'd cut out early at 4:45. While we had our session, it poured some more. The back road I take to the campus was riddled with mini pools and tiny rivers rushing by. I get it Dominica, you get just as much rain as Vancouver, except you combine it with heat so that it feels like a sauna underneath my umbrella. I stopped by IGA to get some groceries and more water in preparation for the water to be shut off again. On my way home, Harper caught up with me and we chatted. His group went really well in contrast to mine, but both of us are confident in what we know. Dr. Sheakley did a really good job. It's truly a shame that she doesn't teach us more.
I got home washed my feet and checked the news. The top story was the same every where - the movie theatre shooting in Colorado. I really don't know what to say. I don't know how a person rationally finds motivation to do that. The mind is an incredibly powerful thing and yet so vulnerable too. It makes you think about the kind of influence you have on someone as well as second guess what's really going on with people. I know that as youth leaders, shortly before I left, we were really tapping into the aspect of influence. In the past couple years, the community of North Delta suffered huge blows with the murder of a teenager by another teenager, and the suicide of a student in one of the high schools. Shortly after the murder took place, I was talking with a mother of the youth. I remember hearing how concerned she was for her own children's safety and this look of hopelessness welling up on her face as her eyes stared at the kitchen counter. I wish I could say that I would never let anything happen to her kids, but that was a promise I couldn't make. I truly was powerless to comfort her in any tangible way. We'd have to live with the fear for a while and then carry on with it at the back of our minds every time we pass by Mackie Park. It was one of the reasons why I chose "Stronger" to be the new song of the month. It's a tough process because the powerlessness, the hopelessness is so debilitating. In hindsight, I wished we as leaders had a meeting about this to discuss safety, to discuss mental health. But we didn't. We didn't talk. We didn't mobilize. We endured individually and as a result were ill prepared to comfort our youth as a team. It was almost as if we unknowingly swept it all under the rug. In all my years of leadership, there has never been anything I've wanted to apologize more for than this, and I've screwed up many times. So to the youth, I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you couldn't discuss these things. I'm sorry if our silence caused you to feel like you were suffering alone. I know it's a bit late, but if you ever want to express your feelings or disappointment or just plain vent, please don't hesitate to contact me. The last thing I'd want is for you to continue to stew on these things. I'd much rather you let it out and we can deal with it together.
Saturday, I got my yoga on. I hadn't been there the last couple weeks so it was definitely good. My core is pretty awesome but my flexibility still sucks. When we're working with straps to stretch out our legs, it's embarrassing how little I can move my extended leg towards me without it hurting (and yoga's not supposed to hurt). I went home, showered, did some laundry as my soccer clothes were starting to stink up the place and I didn't want to wait until I had a full load to send off, and then I skyped with mom. Dad was getting a hair cut. I was impressed by mom's improving tech abilities. Plans are coming along with the house and it's great to see this all coming together. It's a bit exciting when your entire family is going through a transitional process. Mom & dad moving, Justin in Prince Rupert and then going to SAIT in the fall, Gavin turning 30 and the life that comes with that, and me being here in Dominica. Exciting and challenging times for the Yip clan indeed. With all this change, part of me wonders what parts of life will be the same when I visit in December. What will feel like home? The selfish side of me wants everything to stay the same so that I can come back to familiarity, but that's obviously not going to happen. And so there's this side of me that almost dreads having to adapt to whatever version of home awaits me. The things I miss most are things that I assume won't change like the food at Burgoo, the ice cream at DQ, long hugs with Mackie, couch cuddles with Courtenay, talks with Deen and the ability to cry on her for no reason at all, the comfort of my bed. But since everything else will change, I feel like I need to force myself to not miss them because I'll never be satisfied when I return because they won't be what I remembered them to be. And I can't discount the possibility of me changing as well.
After lunch, I headed to the annex. Crossed paths with Genny to chat a bit. She's a pretty cool person. Studied 'til 5 when I headed home and went over my talk for small group one last time, packed up, and headed out. About 3 minutes into the trek it started to sprinkle a bit. I was already past that point where you could head back home and grab the umbrella you left behind. So I kept walking as the rain started picking up. I walked under limited cover as best as I could, but then it started pouring. I was walking past the shacks which is across from the St. James Centre, when I saw Savannah from RCF exiting the Centre. We communicated like mute soldiers mouthing words and using hand signals which given the distance between us was unnecessary and reminded me of this moment from Scrubs. Nonetheless, we determined that we were both heading to the Loys and I found shelter under her umbrella, except for my right shoulder which was located directly under the part where the water streams off the umbrella. Good day to wear a black v-neck (I rock a good v-neck). We met up with Christian and together headed up the hill to the Loys. We were soaked by the time we arrived, but had plenty of time to walk around and try to dry out our clothes.
As we sang songs, more and more people trickled in and by the end of the 3 song set, there were 15 of us. Big crowd, big pressure. I decided to take the crew through Philippians 1:3-11. This passage has consistently spoken to me in so many different ways. There were times that I've read it and thought of one person and times when I think of someone else. It's a beautiful group of verses filled with a kind of love that I've been able to relate to, or rather that I've been able to act on in the last couple years. We've got a pretty biblically literate bunch in RCF which is awesome, but I wanted to switch gears a bit and focus less on the study and backstory aspect, but more on the personal application and emotional side. I don't know how well it went, and it doesn't really matter, but I know I appreciated the openness and honesty that the group had with each other. I was definitely able to get to know some people a heck of a lot better and that is always a victory. After it ended, Esther and I met up with Andrew to have a late dinner at the Subway deck. It was a time to quickly eat with company. We chatted about movies more than anything else. Green Hornet happened to be on the TV. The Seth Rogan rendition. The crappy version. Andrew had a lot to say about the portrayal of Asians in American films, that and cinematography. I enjoyed my toasted Italian BMT and cookies, the simple things in life. After we ate, Andrew and Esther headed back to Classroom 5 to study and I grabbed the shuttle home to grab my gear and steal a couple hours of studying before Saturday turned into Sunday.
Had some weird dreams Saturday night. Involved some sort of fancy dinner outing with the original Krause clan before the girls got hitched. It was weird because it was some sort of planned event for what seemed like the entire city of Vancouver at a fancy restaurant and I was in my PJs (which consists of boxers and a sleeveless T) and there was a weird rule that you had to order an Italian dish, which Erin was adamant about. If you wanted sushi, you had to leave the party. Crazy weird dream. It startled me awake around 5am and I was sweating profusely. I must have ordered the wrong thing.
I went back to sleep after splashing some water on my face and cooling down, but took a much needed shower after my alarm went off. I either arrived a bit late or church started a bit early because the music had already started and the room was less than half full. The pastor from the local church joined us to give the message. It was super short which caught us all a bit off-guard. The service lasted maybe half an hour. Dr. Loy definitely tried to make the service last a bit longer by allowing more time for prayer and Andrew decided to give an impromptu sermon of his own, which maybe given the circumstances or our interactions last night was a bit awkward, but good on him for trying. You know those unplanned times at NDEFC when someone just runs up on stage and they're really emotional and you're a bit scared of what kind of tangent they'll go off on, it was one of those moments for me. After the service, I chatted a bit with people from small group on Saturday, put chairs away, talked with Esther and Jamie (Rachel had already taken off to study, presumably), and then headed for lunch.
The power has been going out quite frequently the last couple of days. There are back-up generators on campus and also at my apartment which is great because then you're off the grid and it's the one time I close the windows and turn on the AC to circulate some non-humidified air in my unit. I had a quick shower because the walk home always gets me a bit sweaty and I rarely have the opportunity to exit the shower and not be hit with a wave of humidity. I hung out at home to enjoy the free AC a bit, texted Harper to make sure if the power was still working at the annex, stole a few more minutes in front of the cooled air, then turned it off and headed to the annex. About every hour or so, the generator goes off and the lights stay on for a few minutes and then cut out. Then you hear the generator kick in, wait 30 seconds, and the lights and AC come back on. Oh Dominica.
Harper and I headed to Schwarma King for dinner. I had a falafel wrap and it was delicious in an onion and garlic kind of way. After dinner, I headed to the CAC where RCF had "4th Semester Sunday" where a bunch of 4ths shared about their journey and time here. It was so encouraging to hear their stories: to hear those you've heard before, those you know, and those you've never met. Steve shared, Amy shared, and Amber shared. Amber was the girl I talked to months ago who's from California but is staying in Dominica for her 5th semester. You might remember her as the person who's name I wouldn't remember for a while. Finally remember it now. Nearly every testimony made me cry. It's so great to hear how God worked in all of their lives and it's tough to stomach the sadness that they feel when they understand that they'll be splitting up from here to go to the three different campuses (Roseau, Miami, and Saginaw). Amy's pain was incredibly palpable, you just wanted to get up and hug the crap out of her. It's remarkable really, how much God has poured out His love into our lives here. I know I feel it. There are people here that I love and the fact is I barely know them, but I can't deny that it's there and I can't say that it's from me. There's no way it's me; it wouldn't be enough time for me. It's 100% God, and it's so great to experience it and recognize it; to just go with it. In my daily devotional today, there was one line that stuck out to me: "It is impossible to be inauthentic while you are focusing on My Presence". Sincerity has always been something I value and strive for in my words and actions; especially as a youth and worship leader at NDEFC. And so I feel like I've been able to enjoy God's presence in my loneliness more, and if this line is true, to know that this love I feel isn't contrived or forced, but authentically of Him, that...that is awesome. Because of this, I have no need to fear or worry about other people's reactions, because it's His love and He doesn't let it burden or hurt anyone. All I need to do is be willing and not let distractions get the best of me.
I feel like this was the night I needed to give me another boost to remind me that God has awesome things in store for me completely outside of the medical realm. It'd be foolish of me to think that any transformative work would take a breather while I'm in school. It's great to know that we are long term projects.
"9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." - Philippians 1:9-11
While Genny and I walked home we both expressed how happy we were that it was Friday. A time to catch up on sleep and studying and maybe even out our tans. It's funny because when she Skypes with her family, they say she looks pale and ask if she's well, whereas my parents ask if I'm wearing sunscreen. We chatted about soccer as well. She's subbed a bit for the OBGYN team but I haven't played them while she's been on the team. Maybe we'll see each other in the playoffs, if we both make the playoffs that is.
While eating lunch, I checked my email and saw that application forms were sent out to those wanting to be on the Welcome Committee for the break. I definitely want to be a part of that so I filled it out and sent it back. After that, I headed to main campus for a group practice problem session. I was with a different group of students that times before and it was a pretty quiet crew. Time seemed to drag on and on and finally we decided we'd cut out early at 4:45. While we had our session, it poured some more. The back road I take to the campus was riddled with mini pools and tiny rivers rushing by. I get it Dominica, you get just as much rain as Vancouver, except you combine it with heat so that it feels like a sauna underneath my umbrella. I stopped by IGA to get some groceries and more water in preparation for the water to be shut off again. On my way home, Harper caught up with me and we chatted. His group went really well in contrast to mine, but both of us are confident in what we know. Dr. Sheakley did a really good job. It's truly a shame that she doesn't teach us more.
I got home washed my feet and checked the news. The top story was the same every where - the movie theatre shooting in Colorado. I really don't know what to say. I don't know how a person rationally finds motivation to do that. The mind is an incredibly powerful thing and yet so vulnerable too. It makes you think about the kind of influence you have on someone as well as second guess what's really going on with people. I know that as youth leaders, shortly before I left, we were really tapping into the aspect of influence. In the past couple years, the community of North Delta suffered huge blows with the murder of a teenager by another teenager, and the suicide of a student in one of the high schools. Shortly after the murder took place, I was talking with a mother of the youth. I remember hearing how concerned she was for her own children's safety and this look of hopelessness welling up on her face as her eyes stared at the kitchen counter. I wish I could say that I would never let anything happen to her kids, but that was a promise I couldn't make. I truly was powerless to comfort her in any tangible way. We'd have to live with the fear for a while and then carry on with it at the back of our minds every time we pass by Mackie Park. It was one of the reasons why I chose "Stronger" to be the new song of the month. It's a tough process because the powerlessness, the hopelessness is so debilitating. In hindsight, I wished we as leaders had a meeting about this to discuss safety, to discuss mental health. But we didn't. We didn't talk. We didn't mobilize. We endured individually and as a result were ill prepared to comfort our youth as a team. It was almost as if we unknowingly swept it all under the rug. In all my years of leadership, there has never been anything I've wanted to apologize more for than this, and I've screwed up many times. So to the youth, I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you couldn't discuss these things. I'm sorry if our silence caused you to feel like you were suffering alone. I know it's a bit late, but if you ever want to express your feelings or disappointment or just plain vent, please don't hesitate to contact me. The last thing I'd want is for you to continue to stew on these things. I'd much rather you let it out and we can deal with it together.
Saturday, I got my yoga on. I hadn't been there the last couple weeks so it was definitely good. My core is pretty awesome but my flexibility still sucks. When we're working with straps to stretch out our legs, it's embarrassing how little I can move my extended leg towards me without it hurting (and yoga's not supposed to hurt). I went home, showered, did some laundry as my soccer clothes were starting to stink up the place and I didn't want to wait until I had a full load to send off, and then I skyped with mom. Dad was getting a hair cut. I was impressed by mom's improving tech abilities. Plans are coming along with the house and it's great to see this all coming together. It's a bit exciting when your entire family is going through a transitional process. Mom & dad moving, Justin in Prince Rupert and then going to SAIT in the fall, Gavin turning 30 and the life that comes with that, and me being here in Dominica. Exciting and challenging times for the Yip clan indeed. With all this change, part of me wonders what parts of life will be the same when I visit in December. What will feel like home? The selfish side of me wants everything to stay the same so that I can come back to familiarity, but that's obviously not going to happen. And so there's this side of me that almost dreads having to adapt to whatever version of home awaits me. The things I miss most are things that I assume won't change like the food at Burgoo, the ice cream at DQ, long hugs with Mackie, couch cuddles with Courtenay, talks with Deen and the ability to cry on her for no reason at all, the comfort of my bed. But since everything else will change, I feel like I need to force myself to not miss them because I'll never be satisfied when I return because they won't be what I remembered them to be. And I can't discount the possibility of me changing as well.
After lunch, I headed to the annex. Crossed paths with Genny to chat a bit. She's a pretty cool person. Studied 'til 5 when I headed home and went over my talk for small group one last time, packed up, and headed out. About 3 minutes into the trek it started to sprinkle a bit. I was already past that point where you could head back home and grab the umbrella you left behind. So I kept walking as the rain started picking up. I walked under limited cover as best as I could, but then it started pouring. I was walking past the shacks which is across from the St. James Centre, when I saw Savannah from RCF exiting the Centre. We communicated like mute soldiers mouthing words and using hand signals which given the distance between us was unnecessary and reminded me of this moment from Scrubs. Nonetheless, we determined that we were both heading to the Loys and I found shelter under her umbrella, except for my right shoulder which was located directly under the part where the water streams off the umbrella. Good day to wear a black v-neck (I rock a good v-neck). We met up with Christian and together headed up the hill to the Loys. We were soaked by the time we arrived, but had plenty of time to walk around and try to dry out our clothes.
As we sang songs, more and more people trickled in and by the end of the 3 song set, there were 15 of us. Big crowd, big pressure. I decided to take the crew through Philippians 1:3-11. This passage has consistently spoken to me in so many different ways. There were times that I've read it and thought of one person and times when I think of someone else. It's a beautiful group of verses filled with a kind of love that I've been able to relate to, or rather that I've been able to act on in the last couple years. We've got a pretty biblically literate bunch in RCF which is awesome, but I wanted to switch gears a bit and focus less on the study and backstory aspect, but more on the personal application and emotional side. I don't know how well it went, and it doesn't really matter, but I know I appreciated the openness and honesty that the group had with each other. I was definitely able to get to know some people a heck of a lot better and that is always a victory. After it ended, Esther and I met up with Andrew to have a late dinner at the Subway deck. It was a time to quickly eat with company. We chatted about movies more than anything else. Green Hornet happened to be on the TV. The Seth Rogan rendition. The crappy version. Andrew had a lot to say about the portrayal of Asians in American films, that and cinematography. I enjoyed my toasted Italian BMT and cookies, the simple things in life. After we ate, Andrew and Esther headed back to Classroom 5 to study and I grabbed the shuttle home to grab my gear and steal a couple hours of studying before Saturday turned into Sunday.
Had some weird dreams Saturday night. Involved some sort of fancy dinner outing with the original Krause clan before the girls got hitched. It was weird because it was some sort of planned event for what seemed like the entire city of Vancouver at a fancy restaurant and I was in my PJs (which consists of boxers and a sleeveless T) and there was a weird rule that you had to order an Italian dish, which Erin was adamant about. If you wanted sushi, you had to leave the party. Crazy weird dream. It startled me awake around 5am and I was sweating profusely. I must have ordered the wrong thing.
I went back to sleep after splashing some water on my face and cooling down, but took a much needed shower after my alarm went off. I either arrived a bit late or church started a bit early because the music had already started and the room was less than half full. The pastor from the local church joined us to give the message. It was super short which caught us all a bit off-guard. The service lasted maybe half an hour. Dr. Loy definitely tried to make the service last a bit longer by allowing more time for prayer and Andrew decided to give an impromptu sermon of his own, which maybe given the circumstances or our interactions last night was a bit awkward, but good on him for trying. You know those unplanned times at NDEFC when someone just runs up on stage and they're really emotional and you're a bit scared of what kind of tangent they'll go off on, it was one of those moments for me. After the service, I chatted a bit with people from small group on Saturday, put chairs away, talked with Esther and Jamie (Rachel had already taken off to study, presumably), and then headed for lunch.
The power has been going out quite frequently the last couple of days. There are back-up generators on campus and also at my apartment which is great because then you're off the grid and it's the one time I close the windows and turn on the AC to circulate some non-humidified air in my unit. I had a quick shower because the walk home always gets me a bit sweaty and I rarely have the opportunity to exit the shower and not be hit with a wave of humidity. I hung out at home to enjoy the free AC a bit, texted Harper to make sure if the power was still working at the annex, stole a few more minutes in front of the cooled air, then turned it off and headed to the annex. About every hour or so, the generator goes off and the lights stay on for a few minutes and then cut out. Then you hear the generator kick in, wait 30 seconds, and the lights and AC come back on. Oh Dominica.
Harper and I headed to Schwarma King for dinner. I had a falafel wrap and it was delicious in an onion and garlic kind of way. After dinner, I headed to the CAC where RCF had "4th Semester Sunday" where a bunch of 4ths shared about their journey and time here. It was so encouraging to hear their stories: to hear those you've heard before, those you know, and those you've never met. Steve shared, Amy shared, and Amber shared. Amber was the girl I talked to months ago who's from California but is staying in Dominica for her 5th semester. You might remember her as the person who's name I wouldn't remember for a while. Finally remember it now. Nearly every testimony made me cry. It's so great to hear how God worked in all of their lives and it's tough to stomach the sadness that they feel when they understand that they'll be splitting up from here to go to the three different campuses (Roseau, Miami, and Saginaw). Amy's pain was incredibly palpable, you just wanted to get up and hug the crap out of her. It's remarkable really, how much God has poured out His love into our lives here. I know I feel it. There are people here that I love and the fact is I barely know them, but I can't deny that it's there and I can't say that it's from me. There's no way it's me; it wouldn't be enough time for me. It's 100% God, and it's so great to experience it and recognize it; to just go with it. In my daily devotional today, there was one line that stuck out to me: "It is impossible to be inauthentic while you are focusing on My Presence". Sincerity has always been something I value and strive for in my words and actions; especially as a youth and worship leader at NDEFC. And so I feel like I've been able to enjoy God's presence in my loneliness more, and if this line is true, to know that this love I feel isn't contrived or forced, but authentically of Him, that...that is awesome. Because of this, I have no need to fear or worry about other people's reactions, because it's His love and He doesn't let it burden or hurt anyone. All I need to do is be willing and not let distractions get the best of me.
I feel like this was the night I needed to give me another boost to remind me that God has awesome things in store for me completely outside of the medical realm. It'd be foolish of me to think that any transformative work would take a breather while I'm in school. It's great to know that we are long term projects.
"9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." - Philippians 1:9-11
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
When I see "SOB", I don't think "Shortness of Breath"
Monday classes were alright. We had a few profs that were less than impressive. I passed out during one because the prof was the most monotone person ever. He'd be giving Ben Stein a run for his money "Bueller? Bueller?". He was talking about hypertension and I'm sure he's the least hypertensive person in the world. After waking up and wiping the drool off my face, I took care of some email things until the next lecture. I should have just studied somewhere else and mediasited the lectures because with the exception of Sheakley's lecture, they were horrible. One was on nutrition and the other was on the genetic basis of cardiovascular diseases except our prof openly admitted that he was "fuzzy" on the material he was trying to teach us. Confidence levels dropped and you could feel it as it spread like a wave across the whole annex. Definitely one of those days where you wished you were studying medicine somewhere else.
Later in the afternoon I had my heart sounds simulation. That meant that I'd get to throw on my blues, stethoscope, and pen light. Admittedly, I felt less douchey than the first time. I may have recreated the West Side Story homage from Scrubs. Felt a bit more confident as if I could say, "I'm going to auscultate the crap out of you". I didn't say that; that'd be an odd thing to say, plus it sounds kind of dirty. Auscultation is done on Harvey. He's a different kind of simulation mannequin than the Sim-Man. He's just the upper half of a body. He breathes, has palpable arteries, and can produce a variety of heart sounds and murmurs. Dimal happened to be in my group for the session. We don't get to see each other too often since he doesn't go to class anymore. Most of the crew doesn't, they mediasite from the library. I think Harper, sometimes Candyce, and I are the only ones that attend class and then Harper and I are the only ones that study in the Annex because we live closer to it and the rest of the crew lives closer to main campus. Gurtej was also in my group. Definitely recognizing faces and remember names. It only took two and a half months.
Heart sounds are pretty cool. Recognizing the low intonations of the S3 and S4 and knowing what causes them definitely makes you feel like a somewhat qualified budding physician. Add that with the new knowledge of interpreting an ECG and you start to think that you can actually do this. Of course what we know compared to a cardiologist would seem like we've barely scratched the surface, but still, I'm liking it.
Tuesday we finished off the Cardiovascular unit with some physio and pharmacology. Pharm is always overwhelming because you've been thrown a bunch of different classes of drugs, then examples of each type, their mode of action, and adverse effects all within 50 minutes. The prof can never focus on any one thing or slow down, so it's up to you to teach yourself afterward. All I learned from the lecture was that James Bond was poisoned with Digoxin in Casino Royal. That's it. Now you know what I know about cardiovascular disorder drugs. That'll change soon though.
Later on I had my Blood Pressure Lab. Harper was in my group for that so we were partners. It was super informal compared to the Heart Sounds simulation. Harper's had plenty of experience taking BPs which is why I practiced with him over the weekend. We really didn't need to practice because we were barely supervised. All we did was take each others' BP, do some calculations, describe what we heard and felt, and that was that. As we left the lab, Amy walked by. We got to chat for a little bit. She's getting excited to leave the island for good, but of course, much like us, there's a crapload of exams to plow through before that. If she's stressed out, it doesn't show. Amy always seems to have an upbeat personality, but in a controlled realistic way. So don't worry, she's nowhere near the annoying line of too optimistic, and when you're in a med school, it gets annoying really fast.
After lab, Harper and I walked home, showered, changed, and then headed to Riverside for dinner (yet another Chinese restaurant). We chatted about our experience so far, what we like, what we don't like, and whether this was what we expected. After dinner, it was back to the annex for us to get our study on.
Wednesday was a day off for 1st semesters, except if you are in PAcE and have your PBL sessions on Wednesday. So Wednesday wasn't a day off for me. PAcE was at 10am. So I woke up at 8, ate breakfast, did some studying, then headed to campus. It seemed quite a bit hotter than it has been in the past because I was very sweaty by the time I arrived on campus. I wasn't the only one feeling the heat, which is comforting. The quiz went well. The thing about putting a group of smart students together is that there is a higher concentration of gunners than normal. A gunner is someone who is over eager to have their apparent intellect heard (regardless of whether they're correct or not). They'll be the first to raise their hand or they'll just bypass the hand action and shout it out instead. They'll ask questions that use superfluous language and research that they've taken the time to look up prior to lecture. It's the upper echelon of "try-hard", you know, the level where every time they open their mouth, I imagine myself punching in their face. So when the session gets interactive with the profs, it proves to be a time where you practice immense restraint and make frequent knowing eye contact with those who are subconsciously holding the gunner up so that you can continue to punch in their face. It could be a question that we all got right, but they'll be the ones boasting about it. It could be one what we all got wrong, and they'll be the ones bitching about it (publicly with the prof of course). It could be one some got right and some got wrong, and they'll be spewing off everything they know about something else completely unrelated. Oh gunners, you'll make smart doctors, but for the sake of your patients (and your face), I hope you start mellowing out. Oh by the way, in case it wasn't clear yet, I'm an ass.
After PAcE, I ran some errands that ended up taking much longer than I would have hoped. To send in my health insurance forms, I needed to buy US stamps. Naturally, I went to the campus post office to buy them, but turns out you go to the Administration office to buy them. So I went to the campus administration building and asked about stamps, when I was instructed that I went to the wrong administration building. There's just an administration administration building and they were the campus administration building which in their mind has very significant differences, but to me, not so much. I was told that it was near the Department of Anatomy offices. So I went to the anatomy building and walked around it to find no doors that said administration. I went up the stairs where the Dean's building was and that wasn't where I needed to be. Headed back down and figured maybe the anatomy office can direct me to the proper location. Turns out the door marked "Department of Anatomy" is the entrance to the administration office. *sigh* Ross, why do you make it so hard to love you? I purchased my stamp, sealed the envelope and put it in the mail box covered with US flags.
After that I headed to the CAC to use the phone to call the National Student Loans Service Centre as I hadn't received my funds yet. The phone was being used by a south western American intent on calling everybody he knew back at home, "Kenny! What up, man? Look dude, I figured I'd give you a call but your obviously not home. So yeah...I guess I'll try to catch you another time. Peace man. LEGEND!" He actually yelled "legend". All of us in the CAC were looking at the back of his head sending "wtf" thoughts. Kenny was first, then came Robby who was actually home to chat, then Chadmeister, then Stanwick, then Kyle (just Kyle, nothing special about his name apparently, he didn't get a "legend" either). Finally, staff pointed out the "10 minute" sign and the line up of people waiting to use the phone, when he finally ended his conversation and fled the scene.
I was next and called NSLSC to figure out what was going on. Finally connected with a human being and after giving all my information (SIN, DOB, address, phone, alt phone), she said "Oh I guess you're in the process of applying because it doesn't look like we have a loan on record for you".
Kirsten: "Ummm...I'm going to have to disagree with you because I've been mailed my Financial Agreement which I signed and mailed back to you a month ago."
Operator: "Oh, can you please hold?"
Kirsten: "Yes, I can"
...
Operator: "Hi, thanks for holding. Yes we have received the Agreement from you. Did you receive a Notice of Assessment?"
Kirsten: "Yes, you sent that to me before you sent the Agreement. Would you like to know what it says?"
Operator: "Umm yes please"
Kirsten: "Do you want to know the total amount of money offered or would you like a break down of which amount comes from which government?"
Operator: "Oh actually, can you hold please?"
Kirsten: "Yes, I can"
...
Operator: "Hello, thank you for holding again for so long"
(awkward pause)
Kirsten: (confused as to whether she actually needed a response from me) "Umm you're welcome?"
Operator: "So are you enrolled in just a summer program?"
Kirsten: "No, I'm enrolled in doctorate of medicine program and I hope it lasts for more than just a summer"
Operator: "Oh hahaha you're in med school?"
Kirsten: "Yes"
Operator: "Hahaha yes, that would be much longer than just a summer program"
Kirsten: "Yes it would"
Operator: "Hahah whew...ok, hold while I look at your file again"
...
Operator: "So we will need your school to send proof that you are currently enrolled as a full time student in order for us to release the funds"
Kirsten: "Ok, where or to whom should this proof be sent? Does it need to be mailed or can it be an electronic document?"
Operator: "It varies depending on the institution. Either way, they'll need to notify the Canadian government of your study status and then the government will notify us and we will release the funds"
Kirsten: "Ok so is there an address of some sort to send the information to"
Operator: "Ummm...your school should know as they've probably done this before"
Kirsten: "You sound unsure"
Operator: "No that's the process. They notify the government, then the government notifies us. I'm certain"
Kirsten: "Oh yeah, I got that part. I was focusing more on the my school notifying the government part."
Operator: "Oh...yeah...that's the process"
Kirsten: "Ok"
Operator: "Did you have any other questions?"
Kirsten: "No I think you've helped me as much as you could."
Operator: "Alright then, have a good day"
That conversation was as entertaining as it was to read it. I started getting a headache. This definitely was not how I was expecting my day to go. I went to the registrars office to speak to someone to have an enrollment letter sent. The receptionist informed me that the person was on lunch break. Lunch, right, I hadn't eaten in a while. Went to the shacks, grabbed some grub and brought it back to the CAC to eat. Legend man was back on the phone chatting away with someone, who I can only assume goes by the name ScottyMcDudemeisterstonwick. I ate quickly and left to speak to the rep who was back from lunch. I entered the his office, explained the situation, and he brought me back out to the receptionist and instructed her to give me the number of the New Jersey office. She wrote down the number and pointed to a phone I could use (so that I didn't have to go back to the CAC where Legend man reigned). Not in service. She picks up the paper and corrects a 6 to a 0. Weeded through the automated service to get to a human being again, where I was instructed to log into my student account and make an online request. Words cannot express how incredibly frustrating and disappointing this day was. My supposed "day off". Wednesdays used to be so good back at home; filled with family, food, and fun (and alliteration apparently). So how do you counteract that kind of day? With carbs, silly! I had heard about this place on campus called "Pic n Go" so I went there and purchased a strawberry and cream cheese croissant and a banana chocolate chip muffin. The angry She-ra in me subsided and I carried on with the rest of my day.
I ended up staying up quite late Wednesday night prepping for school. So late that I was awake when a massive storm started. The lightning would illuminate the entire apartment when I arrived home and changed in the dark. I'm sure there aren't any looky-loos with binoculars, so nothing to worry about there. The rain was just pouring incessantly throughout the night. When my alarm went off at 7, the rain was still going, and my mind was not ready to think. Snooze 1, snooze 2, snooze 3, turned off alarm. It was decided. I would sleep in and go to class for 10. Of course by the time I got up, the water was off. It was probably shut off in the middle of the night with all the rain. Opened up a bottle of water to wash my face and brush my teeth. It felt like I was in Haiti again. Had a leisurely breakfast and worked on my talk for Saturday.
The classes I attended were good and I was alert which was more important. After class, I walked home with Genny, ate a quick lunch, discovered the water was back on, took a quick shower, headed back to the annex to mediasite the lectures I missed, then played soccer in a very muddy and wet field. It was our last game of the regular season. We didn't have our goalie and no one else really knows how to play that position, so we lost big time. Lots of weak goals. I don't know much about the sport but I had to explain to the guys that tried playing goalie when they could use their hands and when they had to use their feet. We won't know until Sunday if we made the playoffs, but it doesn't matter that much to me. It's definitely less fun with Amy being injured and me being the only girl playing. The guys are fine to be around but having another female around makes it much more enjoyable. Hopefully, we'll get more girls next semester.
I'll likely get another post up on Sunday. In the mean time, study products need to be made. Have a great weekend everybody!
Later in the afternoon I had my heart sounds simulation. That meant that I'd get to throw on my blues, stethoscope, and pen light. Admittedly, I felt less douchey than the first time. I may have recreated the West Side Story homage from Scrubs. Felt a bit more confident as if I could say, "I'm going to auscultate the crap out of you". I didn't say that; that'd be an odd thing to say, plus it sounds kind of dirty. Auscultation is done on Harvey. He's a different kind of simulation mannequin than the Sim-Man. He's just the upper half of a body. He breathes, has palpable arteries, and can produce a variety of heart sounds and murmurs. Dimal happened to be in my group for the session. We don't get to see each other too often since he doesn't go to class anymore. Most of the crew doesn't, they mediasite from the library. I think Harper, sometimes Candyce, and I are the only ones that attend class and then Harper and I are the only ones that study in the Annex because we live closer to it and the rest of the crew lives closer to main campus. Gurtej was also in my group. Definitely recognizing faces and remember names. It only took two and a half months.
Heart sounds are pretty cool. Recognizing the low intonations of the S3 and S4 and knowing what causes them definitely makes you feel like a somewhat qualified budding physician. Add that with the new knowledge of interpreting an ECG and you start to think that you can actually do this. Of course what we know compared to a cardiologist would seem like we've barely scratched the surface, but still, I'm liking it.
Tuesday we finished off the Cardiovascular unit with some physio and pharmacology. Pharm is always overwhelming because you've been thrown a bunch of different classes of drugs, then examples of each type, their mode of action, and adverse effects all within 50 minutes. The prof can never focus on any one thing or slow down, so it's up to you to teach yourself afterward. All I learned from the lecture was that James Bond was poisoned with Digoxin in Casino Royal. That's it. Now you know what I know about cardiovascular disorder drugs. That'll change soon though.
Later on I had my Blood Pressure Lab. Harper was in my group for that so we were partners. It was super informal compared to the Heart Sounds simulation. Harper's had plenty of experience taking BPs which is why I practiced with him over the weekend. We really didn't need to practice because we were barely supervised. All we did was take each others' BP, do some calculations, describe what we heard and felt, and that was that. As we left the lab, Amy walked by. We got to chat for a little bit. She's getting excited to leave the island for good, but of course, much like us, there's a crapload of exams to plow through before that. If she's stressed out, it doesn't show. Amy always seems to have an upbeat personality, but in a controlled realistic way. So don't worry, she's nowhere near the annoying line of too optimistic, and when you're in a med school, it gets annoying really fast.
After lab, Harper and I walked home, showered, changed, and then headed to Riverside for dinner (yet another Chinese restaurant). We chatted about our experience so far, what we like, what we don't like, and whether this was what we expected. After dinner, it was back to the annex for us to get our study on.
Wednesday was a day off for 1st semesters, except if you are in PAcE and have your PBL sessions on Wednesday. So Wednesday wasn't a day off for me. PAcE was at 10am. So I woke up at 8, ate breakfast, did some studying, then headed to campus. It seemed quite a bit hotter than it has been in the past because I was very sweaty by the time I arrived on campus. I wasn't the only one feeling the heat, which is comforting. The quiz went well. The thing about putting a group of smart students together is that there is a higher concentration of gunners than normal. A gunner is someone who is over eager to have their apparent intellect heard (regardless of whether they're correct or not). They'll be the first to raise their hand or they'll just bypass the hand action and shout it out instead. They'll ask questions that use superfluous language and research that they've taken the time to look up prior to lecture. It's the upper echelon of "try-hard", you know, the level where every time they open their mouth, I imagine myself punching in their face. So when the session gets interactive with the profs, it proves to be a time where you practice immense restraint and make frequent knowing eye contact with those who are subconsciously holding the gunner up so that you can continue to punch in their face. It could be a question that we all got right, but they'll be the ones boasting about it. It could be one what we all got wrong, and they'll be the ones bitching about it (publicly with the prof of course). It could be one some got right and some got wrong, and they'll be spewing off everything they know about something else completely unrelated. Oh gunners, you'll make smart doctors, but for the sake of your patients (and your face), I hope you start mellowing out. Oh by the way, in case it wasn't clear yet, I'm an ass.
After PAcE, I ran some errands that ended up taking much longer than I would have hoped. To send in my health insurance forms, I needed to buy US stamps. Naturally, I went to the campus post office to buy them, but turns out you go to the Administration office to buy them. So I went to the campus administration building and asked about stamps, when I was instructed that I went to the wrong administration building. There's just an administration administration building and they were the campus administration building which in their mind has very significant differences, but to me, not so much. I was told that it was near the Department of Anatomy offices. So I went to the anatomy building and walked around it to find no doors that said administration. I went up the stairs where the Dean's building was and that wasn't where I needed to be. Headed back down and figured maybe the anatomy office can direct me to the proper location. Turns out the door marked "Department of Anatomy" is the entrance to the administration office. *sigh* Ross, why do you make it so hard to love you? I purchased my stamp, sealed the envelope and put it in the mail box covered with US flags.
After that I headed to the CAC to use the phone to call the National Student Loans Service Centre as I hadn't received my funds yet. The phone was being used by a south western American intent on calling everybody he knew back at home, "Kenny! What up, man? Look dude, I figured I'd give you a call but your obviously not home. So yeah...I guess I'll try to catch you another time. Peace man. LEGEND!" He actually yelled "legend". All of us in the CAC were looking at the back of his head sending "wtf" thoughts. Kenny was first, then came Robby who was actually home to chat, then Chadmeister, then Stanwick, then Kyle (just Kyle, nothing special about his name apparently, he didn't get a "legend" either). Finally, staff pointed out the "10 minute" sign and the line up of people waiting to use the phone, when he finally ended his conversation and fled the scene.
I was next and called NSLSC to figure out what was going on. Finally connected with a human being and after giving all my information (SIN, DOB, address, phone, alt phone), she said "Oh I guess you're in the process of applying because it doesn't look like we have a loan on record for you".
Kirsten: "Ummm...I'm going to have to disagree with you because I've been mailed my Financial Agreement which I signed and mailed back to you a month ago."
Operator: "Oh, can you please hold?"
Kirsten: "Yes, I can"
...
Operator: "Hi, thanks for holding. Yes we have received the Agreement from you. Did you receive a Notice of Assessment?"
Kirsten: "Yes, you sent that to me before you sent the Agreement. Would you like to know what it says?"
Operator: "Umm yes please"
Kirsten: "Do you want to know the total amount of money offered or would you like a break down of which amount comes from which government?"
Operator: "Oh actually, can you hold please?"
Kirsten: "Yes, I can"
...
Operator: "Hello, thank you for holding again for so long"
(awkward pause)
Kirsten: (confused as to whether she actually needed a response from me) "Umm you're welcome?"
Operator: "So are you enrolled in just a summer program?"
Kirsten: "No, I'm enrolled in doctorate of medicine program and I hope it lasts for more than just a summer"
Operator: "Oh hahaha you're in med school?"
Kirsten: "Yes"
Operator: "Hahaha yes, that would be much longer than just a summer program"
Kirsten: "Yes it would"
Operator: "Hahah whew...ok, hold while I look at your file again"
...
Operator: "So we will need your school to send proof that you are currently enrolled as a full time student in order for us to release the funds"
Kirsten: "Ok, where or to whom should this proof be sent? Does it need to be mailed or can it be an electronic document?"
Operator: "It varies depending on the institution. Either way, they'll need to notify the Canadian government of your study status and then the government will notify us and we will release the funds"
Kirsten: "Ok so is there an address of some sort to send the information to"
Operator: "Ummm...your school should know as they've probably done this before"
Kirsten: "You sound unsure"
Operator: "No that's the process. They notify the government, then the government notifies us. I'm certain"
Kirsten: "Oh yeah, I got that part. I was focusing more on the my school notifying the government part."
Operator: "Oh...yeah...that's the process"
Kirsten: "Ok"
Operator: "Did you have any other questions?"
Kirsten: "No I think you've helped me as much as you could."
Operator: "Alright then, have a good day"
That conversation was as entertaining as it was to read it. I started getting a headache. This definitely was not how I was expecting my day to go. I went to the registrars office to speak to someone to have an enrollment letter sent. The receptionist informed me that the person was on lunch break. Lunch, right, I hadn't eaten in a while. Went to the shacks, grabbed some grub and brought it back to the CAC to eat. Legend man was back on the phone chatting away with someone, who I can only assume goes by the name ScottyMcDudemeisterstonwick. I ate quickly and left to speak to the rep who was back from lunch. I entered the his office, explained the situation, and he brought me back out to the receptionist and instructed her to give me the number of the New Jersey office. She wrote down the number and pointed to a phone I could use (so that I didn't have to go back to the CAC where Legend man reigned). Not in service. She picks up the paper and corrects a 6 to a 0. Weeded through the automated service to get to a human being again, where I was instructed to log into my student account and make an online request. Words cannot express how incredibly frustrating and disappointing this day was. My supposed "day off". Wednesdays used to be so good back at home; filled with family, food, and fun (and alliteration apparently). So how do you counteract that kind of day? With carbs, silly! I had heard about this place on campus called "Pic n Go" so I went there and purchased a strawberry and cream cheese croissant and a banana chocolate chip muffin. The angry She-ra in me subsided and I carried on with the rest of my day.
I ended up staying up quite late Wednesday night prepping for school. So late that I was awake when a massive storm started. The lightning would illuminate the entire apartment when I arrived home and changed in the dark. I'm sure there aren't any looky-loos with binoculars, so nothing to worry about there. The rain was just pouring incessantly throughout the night. When my alarm went off at 7, the rain was still going, and my mind was not ready to think. Snooze 1, snooze 2, snooze 3, turned off alarm. It was decided. I would sleep in and go to class for 10. Of course by the time I got up, the water was off. It was probably shut off in the middle of the night with all the rain. Opened up a bottle of water to wash my face and brush my teeth. It felt like I was in Haiti again. Had a leisurely breakfast and worked on my talk for Saturday.
The classes I attended were good and I was alert which was more important. After class, I walked home with Genny, ate a quick lunch, discovered the water was back on, took a quick shower, headed back to the annex to mediasite the lectures I missed, then played soccer in a very muddy and wet field. It was our last game of the regular season. We didn't have our goalie and no one else really knows how to play that position, so we lost big time. Lots of weak goals. I don't know much about the sport but I had to explain to the guys that tried playing goalie when they could use their hands and when they had to use their feet. We won't know until Sunday if we made the playoffs, but it doesn't matter that much to me. It's definitely less fun with Amy being injured and me being the only girl playing. The guys are fine to be around but having another female around makes it much more enjoyable. Hopefully, we'll get more girls next semester.
I'll likely get another post up on Sunday. In the mean time, study products need to be made. Have a great weekend everybody!
Sunday, 15 July 2012
While I get Rain and Sun, Vancouver gets Sun
"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return
to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so
that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word
that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will
accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
- Isaiah 55:10-11
- Isaiah 55:10-11
This is the daily verse I received in my inbox this morning. How fitting, given that 50% of the weekend has involved rain. There are times when I'm at home after eating a meal and trying to wait for a lull in the rain. Eventually I just have to suck it up and brave it and of course, as soon as I enter the annex, the downpour stops and the sun is out in full force as if to say "Fooled you!". Granted, the combination of rain and sun makes for a very beautiful lush island and I absolutely appreciate that.
The last few days haven't been too eventful. MOTS. Thursday, Harper and I did our lab demonstration. I find when I'm responsible for teaching something to others, I really need to know my stuff because I don't want to misinform my classmates. So my demos tend to go a bit long and in depth making sure we cover all the learning objectives. The other lab groups seem to appreciate it, but I appreciate it just as much because it forces me to really learn and understand something that I may have just skimmed over. We only have one more lab left and I'm dissecting for that one which again, somewhat forces you to know your stuff so that we can be quick and efficient and get out early. Overall, I've really enjoyed anatomy and anatomy lab. It used to be my worst subject but I've come to like it and improve. Hopefully, I'll keep it up and be able to be a Lab TA in future semesters if I have the time. Looks like a fun gig.
The last few days haven't been too eventful. MOTS. Thursday, Harper and I did our lab demonstration. I find when I'm responsible for teaching something to others, I really need to know my stuff because I don't want to misinform my classmates. So my demos tend to go a bit long and in depth making sure we cover all the learning objectives. The other lab groups seem to appreciate it, but I appreciate it just as much because it forces me to really learn and understand something that I may have just skimmed over. We only have one more lab left and I'm dissecting for that one which again, somewhat forces you to know your stuff so that we can be quick and efficient and get out early. Overall, I've really enjoyed anatomy and anatomy lab. It used to be my worst subject but I've come to like it and improve. Hopefully, I'll keep it up and be able to be a Lab TA in future semesters if I have the time. Looks like a fun gig.
In less than a month, first semester will be over and done with. In some ways it went by quickly but in other ways not so much. It was definitely slow going in the beginning but once all the exams started rolling into the next, it felt like there was no time to breath. Things have calmed down a bit but in two weeks, we'll all be crazy stressed out studying for 3 practicals, followed by a mini, followed by the final. People are getting excited about going home for the break and there's a definite part of me that wishes I could come home too, but I'm glad I'll have time to settle into my new apartment and hopefully get to enjoy the island a bit more. Hopefully I can be on the Welcome Committee and meet the newbies whilst instilling fear into them, analogous to JD's leadership style.
Saturday, I had my alarm set for 8 for yoga. When it went off, I heard the torrential rain pouring outside, turned off the alarm, and proceeded to sleep in. Mom & Dad had a couple looking at the house during our usual Skype time. I didn't find out until I logged for our normal Skype session. So I had a leisurely breakfast, did some work at home, and then had a scheduled Skype date with Alison. She recently returned from a trip to a friend's cabin out East and then from Disneyland. She went to Ottawa on Canada Day and also found accommodations for when she attends Carleton in the fall. I'd say that's a pretty productive vacation.
In the evening, I went to small group. It's been a couple weeks since I've been able to attend, so it was nice to join them again. When I arrived at the Loys' house, Long (yup, his name is Long, he's Asian if that helps) has tinkering around on a guitar and asked what an E chord was. I didn't know how much guitar he knew so I said that it's the same formation as an Am chord but one string up for each finger (which is probably what I told all the girls I taught guitar too, right Katelyn, Mackie, and Saralyn?). Well he reacted as if he was in the presence of a guitar master (which isn't true), and we started a quick impromptu guitar lesson on the chords for songs in the key of E. Unlike my girls, Long doesn't know theory which proves to be a bit more difficult because I have to start teaching by numbers (which I very much dislike). Nonetheless, I introduced him to power chords and the beauty of the key of E and the ability to keep your ring finger on the fret board throughout the song to aid in chord transitions. Again, he reacted as if his mind was blown. I was just happy to hold a guitar again and be reminded of the fun guitar lessons at the Dycks' house Sunday afternoons. Quick girls: if the song is in the key of C and I want to use the chord formations associated with the key of G, where do I put my capo? (I actually do expect a response despite how much you dreaded these pop quizzes).
Long ended up leading the small group, taking us through Matthew 3. There was a lot of discussion about baptism and the Holy Spirit. It was interesting to listen to every one's opinions and thoughts. I didn't say much during the evening and Long noticed that a few of us were quiet. So he asked us what was on our minds. Admittedly, my mind's been stuck in the past a bit. Ever since Obamacare was deemed constitutional, I've really struggled with the negative reaction probably more than I let on when I blogged about it a couple weeks ago. It's made me be much less talkative and more observant and discerning of people. Not in a way where I want to make sure I spend time with only a certain type of American Christian, but in a way where I understand where they stand on things and then explore the areas where we disagree. Again, not to figure out who's right or wrong, but to make sure that both parties are honouring God with their lives in the decisions that we've made. So that's essentially want I said. I explained how I disagree with the negative reaction and don't understand it and as a result, I've realized that I need to spend more time getting to know people and that involves me being purposefully reserved. I don't know if that's what everybody wanted to hear, but it was important for me to be honest, especially since I'm scheduled to lead small group this coming Saturday.
Esther and I went out for dinner after small group and no doubt, discussed health care in Canada and the US. Esther's from Chicago and used to work at a medical institution where if she wanted health insurance, 30% of her paycheck would go towards her insurance payments, and since that's a hefty cut, she's never had health insurance. I think that's pretty messed up and a horrible truth for so many Americans. I'm not exactly sure what percentage we pay into our MSP but I'm confident it's not 30% of our net income. Esther had a lot of questions about our system and I tried by best to lay out the pros and cons, and in mind (probably because I'm in fairly good health) the pros far outweigh the cons. But the general concept was health care is available to all, relatively inexpensive for all, because we all contribute to it. I think that's a beautiful thing.
Sunday, I went to church and one of the guys from our small group gave the sermon. To be honest, I don't know the spelling of his name exactly. Odoku? (And yes, when I first heard it, I heard Sudoku, so don't worry, I was a tool before you were). Coincidentally, he spoke about the Holy Spirit which was pretty cool. So far, the speakers that I've witnessed include two Caucasian American (mid-south western) men, three men of African descent, and one Asian Canadian man: 5 students, 1 staff. It's been a pretty neat mixture, though it makes me wonder who else might I see next and whether they'll have an accent or not.
After church I had lunch, then did some grocery shopping, showered, headed to Harper's to practice BP and auscultation, then Skyped with the parents, then headed to the annex to study. ECG's are fun. Listening to murmurs and abnormal heart sounds are pretty cool too. It's safe to say I'm enjoying this material. Respiratory is next and hopefully, I'll feel the same way then.
Saturday, I had my alarm set for 8 for yoga. When it went off, I heard the torrential rain pouring outside, turned off the alarm, and proceeded to sleep in. Mom & Dad had a couple looking at the house during our usual Skype time. I didn't find out until I logged for our normal Skype session. So I had a leisurely breakfast, did some work at home, and then had a scheduled Skype date with Alison. She recently returned from a trip to a friend's cabin out East and then from Disneyland. She went to Ottawa on Canada Day and also found accommodations for when she attends Carleton in the fall. I'd say that's a pretty productive vacation.
In the evening, I went to small group. It's been a couple weeks since I've been able to attend, so it was nice to join them again. When I arrived at the Loys' house, Long (yup, his name is Long, he's Asian if that helps) has tinkering around on a guitar and asked what an E chord was. I didn't know how much guitar he knew so I said that it's the same formation as an Am chord but one string up for each finger (which is probably what I told all the girls I taught guitar too, right Katelyn, Mackie, and Saralyn?). Well he reacted as if he was in the presence of a guitar master (which isn't true), and we started a quick impromptu guitar lesson on the chords for songs in the key of E. Unlike my girls, Long doesn't know theory which proves to be a bit more difficult because I have to start teaching by numbers (which I very much dislike). Nonetheless, I introduced him to power chords and the beauty of the key of E and the ability to keep your ring finger on the fret board throughout the song to aid in chord transitions. Again, he reacted as if his mind was blown. I was just happy to hold a guitar again and be reminded of the fun guitar lessons at the Dycks' house Sunday afternoons. Quick girls: if the song is in the key of C and I want to use the chord formations associated with the key of G, where do I put my capo? (I actually do expect a response despite how much you dreaded these pop quizzes).
Long ended up leading the small group, taking us through Matthew 3. There was a lot of discussion about baptism and the Holy Spirit. It was interesting to listen to every one's opinions and thoughts. I didn't say much during the evening and Long noticed that a few of us were quiet. So he asked us what was on our minds. Admittedly, my mind's been stuck in the past a bit. Ever since Obamacare was deemed constitutional, I've really struggled with the negative reaction probably more than I let on when I blogged about it a couple weeks ago. It's made me be much less talkative and more observant and discerning of people. Not in a way where I want to make sure I spend time with only a certain type of American Christian, but in a way where I understand where they stand on things and then explore the areas where we disagree. Again, not to figure out who's right or wrong, but to make sure that both parties are honouring God with their lives in the decisions that we've made. So that's essentially want I said. I explained how I disagree with the negative reaction and don't understand it and as a result, I've realized that I need to spend more time getting to know people and that involves me being purposefully reserved. I don't know if that's what everybody wanted to hear, but it was important for me to be honest, especially since I'm scheduled to lead small group this coming Saturday.
Esther and I went out for dinner after small group and no doubt, discussed health care in Canada and the US. Esther's from Chicago and used to work at a medical institution where if she wanted health insurance, 30% of her paycheck would go towards her insurance payments, and since that's a hefty cut, she's never had health insurance. I think that's pretty messed up and a horrible truth for so many Americans. I'm not exactly sure what percentage we pay into our MSP but I'm confident it's not 30% of our net income. Esther had a lot of questions about our system and I tried by best to lay out the pros and cons, and in mind (probably because I'm in fairly good health) the pros far outweigh the cons. But the general concept was health care is available to all, relatively inexpensive for all, because we all contribute to it. I think that's a beautiful thing.
Sunday, I went to church and one of the guys from our small group gave the sermon. To be honest, I don't know the spelling of his name exactly. Odoku? (And yes, when I first heard it, I heard Sudoku, so don't worry, I was a tool before you were). Coincidentally, he spoke about the Holy Spirit which was pretty cool. So far, the speakers that I've witnessed include two Caucasian American (mid-south western) men, three men of African descent, and one Asian Canadian man: 5 students, 1 staff. It's been a pretty neat mixture, though it makes me wonder who else might I see next and whether they'll have an accent or not.
After church I had lunch, then did some grocery shopping, showered, headed to Harper's to practice BP and auscultation, then Skyped with the parents, then headed to the annex to study. ECG's are fun. Listening to murmurs and abnormal heart sounds are pretty cool too. It's safe to say I'm enjoying this material. Respiratory is next and hopefully, I'll feel the same way then.
Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Schenanigans up the Wazoo
Ok crew, what to talk about this time? The schedule for this last block of the semester feels a bit more relaxed and the content is more interesting. We're studying the cardiovascular and respiratory system. We have different professors than who we've had before and they are proving to be quite exceptional. We've got Dr. Nunn teaching us embryology of the heart in tangible ways that make sense and keep us engaged. A very gifted teacher. Of course there's the odd student who posts on Facebook that they her lecture goes over their head...and then the rest of the class essentially calls that person an idiot. And you know me, I just laugh. Our other new prof, Dr. Sheakley, teaches us physiology and again, she's great. Nice steady pace and thorough. The down side is her "valley girl" voice because subconsciously you're docking her IQ score every time she hangs onto that last syllable for far too long. Nonetheless, she knows her stuff and is able to articulate it to the class and that's what matters.
In other news, Question Man moved. God is good.
If you've been a hardcore follower of this blog (which I assume all of you are...) you may recall me briefly mentioning that our class initially had a reputation for being a polite class. I guarantee you, that reputation has been stripped off, stomped on, shoved in a bag filled with dog feces, and lit on fire. We suck. It's embarrassing really. Obviously there are good people in our semester (I'm not one of them, I'm an ass). But the vocal ones, the stupid ones, the rude ones, they're outnumbering the gems or stealing the attention of everybody else because very few upper semesters and staff like us. We're known for being disruptive in quiet study spaces, breaking rules about food in the library, getting into heated arguments with faculty, and whining to no end about anything and everything.
Most recently, we had a T-shirt design contest. Each semester has their own shirt. The first set of designs were voted on and a winning design was chosen. Shortly after, a huge uproar resulted due to some inconsistencies with the design and the meaning behind the symbols (caduceus vs. rod of asclepius). Subsequently, the process started over again and new submissions could be entered in. My friend Janos (the "J" of the infamous DJ crew) created an awesome original design this time around and it ended up winning. As part of the voting process we pick the design, the colour of the shirt, and the colour of the font/image. The majority voted for a black shirt with white print. If you thought I was being a judgmental jerk before, be prepared for more jerkiness. Huge uproar again resulted... about the colour!! For some reason, a black T-shirt is the equivalent of pouring hot magma over your body, throwing a parka on, and stepping into Nebakanezer's fiery furnace. Of course, one of the more outspoken students hating on the colour shows up days later in a black t-shirt and black shorts (with a white stripe on each side). Those white stripes must have been his saving grace, otherwise, I'm sure I would have found him lying in the middle of the street dying from dehydration. I'd run to his aid, but alas, he'd be beyond help based purely on the amount of black he was wearing. "I'm sorry ma'am, but there's just too much black. All we can do now is make him as comfortable as possible." Yup, I'm an ass (Sorry for all the "ass"es Caroline, but I assume it's one of the okay words. You might need to send me a list)
Unfortunately, this started a bit of a cat fight (for lack of a better word) which again doesn't help our reputation as first semesters. So many people are complaining and taking stabs at each other at the same time, you'd think we're all on the same cycle or part of an MTV "reality" show. But sadly, this is real life and the fact is we're all just idiots. Emotional, irrational, prideful idiots. So to any upper semesters (and on the off chance, faculty) reading this, I apologize for how poorly we're behaving. To any first semesters reading this, can we please try to be better people? I think it'd be better that way (you know, given that we have to spend the next 3 semesters with each other, assuming we all don't fail or drop out).
Ok axe grinding done. Let's deal with some other things. I got my mark back from the mini. Ended up with a 73% which I know most students would be fine with, but I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the grade was fair, the test was fair, I just couldn't digest the info in time and that's very disappointing. There isn't a fear of failing, because as long as I still have a brain, that's not going to happen. I just have expectations of myself because I know that I can do better. Nonetheless, you keep me honest and it does me good to let you know when I don't do well. No sense in hiding it. I'm still going to be one of the best damn doctors you'll ever know. I'm going to diagnose the crap out of you.
Tuesday we had lab. I was scheduled to be the recorder and demonstrator for this session, but as I walked to the lab, Sophia, who was scheduled to be the dissector, asked if I could dissect instead. I had actually prepped for this lab so I knew I could if she was sure she wasn't up to it. Needless to say, I was happy I got to dissect because we dissected the heart. Josiah and I worked together to isolate the superficial phrenic nerves, reflect the pericardium back, located the various sinuses, and remove the heart. It's the first heart I've ever held. It was remarkable. The intricacies, the musculature, the valves, the arteries and veins. It takes a stroke of genius to make that up, let alone the rest of the human body. It makes me appreciate the moments when I look down and can see my shirt move to the beat of my heart or when I look at my left wrist and can see my pulse rhythmically bulge out.
Today, I got my blood test results. All normal, though in different units from my BC lab results. So it's tough to figure out the trend. If any of you are up to the challenge of converting units, message me and I'll give you the data. I emailed the results to my endocrinologist in BC and and he responded by saying to stick with the same dosage and to do another blood test in 3 months and then see him in December. Regardless, it's comforting to know that my thyroid has handled the stress of living in a Caribbean climate and the rigors of med school.
After the appointment, I stayed on campus to eat lunch, do some studying, go to PBL, then go to lab to prep for the demo tomorrow with Harper, then I ate dinner, then headed to a meeting with Tom H from Ross. He's one of the Canadian reps from Ross. He was the one who interviewed me. The meeting was open to all Canadian students and proved to be incredibly informative. They've put together this amazing resource book that outlines the processes we'll need to follow if we want to do elective rotations, residencies, and eventually practice in Canada. It's nice to know that Tom comes down once a semester so that he can help us along the way. He already knows quite a few upper semesters by name and by province. Something tells me this is a guy that I should get to know well.
Anyways, good people, since being on campus all day doing various things, I haven't had much time to devote to studying and I should probably get some done. Hope you're all doing well, staying safe, and smiling.
In other news, Question Man moved. God is good.
If you've been a hardcore follower of this blog (which I assume all of you are...) you may recall me briefly mentioning that our class initially had a reputation for being a polite class. I guarantee you, that reputation has been stripped off, stomped on, shoved in a bag filled with dog feces, and lit on fire. We suck. It's embarrassing really. Obviously there are good people in our semester (I'm not one of them, I'm an ass). But the vocal ones, the stupid ones, the rude ones, they're outnumbering the gems or stealing the attention of everybody else because very few upper semesters and staff like us. We're known for being disruptive in quiet study spaces, breaking rules about food in the library, getting into heated arguments with faculty, and whining to no end about anything and everything.
Most recently, we had a T-shirt design contest. Each semester has their own shirt. The first set of designs were voted on and a winning design was chosen. Shortly after, a huge uproar resulted due to some inconsistencies with the design and the meaning behind the symbols (caduceus vs. rod of asclepius). Subsequently, the process started over again and new submissions could be entered in. My friend Janos (the "J" of the infamous DJ crew) created an awesome original design this time around and it ended up winning. As part of the voting process we pick the design, the colour of the shirt, and the colour of the font/image. The majority voted for a black shirt with white print. If you thought I was being a judgmental jerk before, be prepared for more jerkiness. Huge uproar again resulted... about the colour!! For some reason, a black T-shirt is the equivalent of pouring hot magma over your body, throwing a parka on, and stepping into Nebakanezer's fiery furnace. Of course, one of the more outspoken students hating on the colour shows up days later in a black t-shirt and black shorts (with a white stripe on each side). Those white stripes must have been his saving grace, otherwise, I'm sure I would have found him lying in the middle of the street dying from dehydration. I'd run to his aid, but alas, he'd be beyond help based purely on the amount of black he was wearing. "I'm sorry ma'am, but there's just too much black. All we can do now is make him as comfortable as possible." Yup, I'm an ass (Sorry for all the "ass"es Caroline, but I assume it's one of the okay words. You might need to send me a list)
Unfortunately, this started a bit of a cat fight (for lack of a better word) which again doesn't help our reputation as first semesters. So many people are complaining and taking stabs at each other at the same time, you'd think we're all on the same cycle or part of an MTV "reality" show. But sadly, this is real life and the fact is we're all just idiots. Emotional, irrational, prideful idiots. So to any upper semesters (and on the off chance, faculty) reading this, I apologize for how poorly we're behaving. To any first semesters reading this, can we please try to be better people? I think it'd be better that way (you know, given that we have to spend the next 3 semesters with each other, assuming we all don't fail or drop out).
Ok axe grinding done. Let's deal with some other things. I got my mark back from the mini. Ended up with a 73% which I know most students would be fine with, but I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the grade was fair, the test was fair, I just couldn't digest the info in time and that's very disappointing. There isn't a fear of failing, because as long as I still have a brain, that's not going to happen. I just have expectations of myself because I know that I can do better. Nonetheless, you keep me honest and it does me good to let you know when I don't do well. No sense in hiding it. I'm still going to be one of the best damn doctors you'll ever know. I'm going to diagnose the crap out of you.
Tuesday we had lab. I was scheduled to be the recorder and demonstrator for this session, but as I walked to the lab, Sophia, who was scheduled to be the dissector, asked if I could dissect instead. I had actually prepped for this lab so I knew I could if she was sure she wasn't up to it. Needless to say, I was happy I got to dissect because we dissected the heart. Josiah and I worked together to isolate the superficial phrenic nerves, reflect the pericardium back, located the various sinuses, and remove the heart. It's the first heart I've ever held. It was remarkable. The intricacies, the musculature, the valves, the arteries and veins. It takes a stroke of genius to make that up, let alone the rest of the human body. It makes me appreciate the moments when I look down and can see my shirt move to the beat of my heart or when I look at my left wrist and can see my pulse rhythmically bulge out.
Today, I got my blood test results. All normal, though in different units from my BC lab results. So it's tough to figure out the trend. If any of you are up to the challenge of converting units, message me and I'll give you the data. I emailed the results to my endocrinologist in BC and and he responded by saying to stick with the same dosage and to do another blood test in 3 months and then see him in December. Regardless, it's comforting to know that my thyroid has handled the stress of living in a Caribbean climate and the rigors of med school.
After the appointment, I stayed on campus to eat lunch, do some studying, go to PBL, then go to lab to prep for the demo tomorrow with Harper, then I ate dinner, then headed to a meeting with Tom H from Ross. He's one of the Canadian reps from Ross. He was the one who interviewed me. The meeting was open to all Canadian students and proved to be incredibly informative. They've put together this amazing resource book that outlines the processes we'll need to follow if we want to do elective rotations, residencies, and eventually practice in Canada. It's nice to know that Tom comes down once a semester so that he can help us along the way. He already knows quite a few upper semesters by name and by province. Something tells me this is a guy that I should get to know well.
Anyways, good people, since being on campus all day doing various things, I haven't had much time to devote to studying and I should probably get some done. Hope you're all doing well, staying safe, and smiling.
Sunday, 8 July 2012
A Smattering of Things If You Will
Wednesday had me up at the normal time, except I was heading to the health clinic instead of class. It was a quick appointment. The way they draw your blood here is a tad bit different than what they do back home. In BC (and I'm sure most of North America), they have a test tube that attaches directly to the needle apparatus. Here, they have a long skinny tube attached to the needle and then they attach the test tube to the skinny tube. For anyone who's donated blood before (or has had their blood drawn like this), you know that when the tube lies against your skin, you feel the warmth of your blood running through it. It was a feeling I hadn't felt in years since I haven't been able to donate blood in a while. Of course, I think it's cool, but sorry for making some of you queasy. The rest of the post should be fine.
I wasn't sure how the student health insurance worked here, but I soon found out that you pay, fill out a claim, have the form signed by a doctor, and then mail it to the insurance office in the states. A blood test costs $230 EC (~$90 CDN) and the clinic takes cash or cheque. So I ran to the bank (keeping my hand on the puncture site to prevent bruising, of course), withdrew the cash, paid for the test, grabbed a claim form, headed to the mail room to pick up my health care card (which I should have received when I first got here), and made an appointment for next week to go over results when I'll also get my claim form signed. *sigh* I miss Canada. I miss our health care system.
After all of that, I did some quick grocery shopping, cooled off in the shower, and then headed to class for 10am. We're on the Cardio & Respiratory block now. Last block of the semester. The thing about Ross is that you've got a lot of international professors. Some of them you can understand just fine. Others not so much. It was probably because I had come into the middle of a lecture and hadn't heard the man speak before, but it took me far too long than I care to admit to figure out that every time he said "vlasic" he was trying to say "thoracic". I remember thinking, "What the heck is a vlasicocentisis?" Yeah, I'm usually not on my game the day after an exam. After class, I left my stuff in the annex and walked home with Genny (who I sit around and lives two stories above me), ate lunch, then headed back to the annex to Mediasite the first two hours I missed. At 2:15, I headed home to change and pack up my stuff for my PBL session followed by a soccer game. Upon leaving PBL, I crossed paths with a classmate who's from Edmonton, Gurtej. He said "Hey, did you hear about the Wild?" If you want to make sure you have my attention, always start with a statement that pertains to hockey, ice cream, or music. I hadn't heard anything about the free agency frenzy that day. I've been following it periodically but it was pretty slow and uneventful in the beginning. So Gurtej kindly informed me that Minnesota signed BOTH Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to 13 year contracts paying out over 7 million a year. WHAT?!?!?! Where are they getting the money from? Was their roster so underpaid that they were well below the cap? Anyways, with hockey on the mind, I headed to Jenner field to get my soccer on. We had the same crew as last time, plus a new guy, Marlon. We played incredibly well - carried the play but couldn't finish our scoring chances. Finally in the second half, they were going in and we won 3-0. Apparently we won it for America...I guess America could use a win, so I let it slide.
Walked home with Amy and her friend/classmate Tom. Both are going to Michigan for their 5th and they were chatting about the struggles that will face them in terms of getting clinical rotations and electives that are "greenbook" in that they're approved by the ACGME. Definitely an overwhelming topic to listen in on, but I had already heard about these challenges. It was just tough to hear how stressful it was for them, know that I'll eventually deal with that, and know that nothing I could do at the moment could help any of us. "Clear eyes, full hearts - can't lose"?
In the annex, I sit in the far right section about midway down the rows. The same group of people are there: Chris is usually beside me, Max & Genny behind me, Maz & Gurtej in front, Tanja in front of them, Joe on the right and a smattering of regular guest appearances. We all chat and joke with each other and we've created a wonderful community there. Well anyways, since the mini, some people have changed their seating arrangements, but our group remains intact. I don't know if it's because they were being distracted where they were before or whatever, but one particular student has moved into our vicinity and is throwing our groove off. He's notorious for asking far too many questions during lecture and dictating them at the slowest speed possible. In a speed reading contest, he'd be dead last...to Stephen Hawking...with a Pentium III processor (those came out in 1999). If he were to have a telephone conversation with Gavin, it would take all day ("Heeeeeeeyyy Kirst. Hooow's it goooing" I love you bro, but you know it's true). If 50% of his questions were questions that benefit the class, I might be ok with it, but that's not the case. So having him mere meters away is proving to be a trying experience. During our micro anatomy lecture he had issues with a particular figure. It was a cross section of a blood vessel except the figure didn't show the entire vessel, but rather a piece of it (like a piece of pie). For whatever reason, he couldn't understand what he was looking at, didn't know what was what and which direction the blood flowed. So of course he requested that our professor walk him through the diagram so he could understand it. First off, if the issue is something that only you are struggling with, then ask your classmate next to you (even if it's me), or talk to the prof during the break or during office hours, don't waste the entire class' time; that's just being selfish. Normally, I'd have a chuckle to myself or with my "community members", but this request was so ridiculous (and about the fifth one he asked within the hour) that I didn't know what to do so I just put my head in my hands, breathed, and then shuddered with the type of contained laughter that could turn to cries of agony. Don't worry, I was in the same row as Question Man separated by a couple people, so he wouldn't have seen me (plus he was busy breaking the Da Vinci Code). What I didn't count on was Rachel seeing me. She sits in the front row on the left aisle seat. A few minutes later, I got a message from her expressing her pleasure in watching my reaction to Question Man. At least I'm making someone's day a bit brighter.We had a good chat during the break that followed.
So what did we learn? I can be incredibly sarcastic and I tend to laugh at stupid people, but somehow you either love me for it or in spite of it. Rachel chose the former. I like Rachel.
Friday lectures went alright. Admittedly, messaging back and forth with Rachel made it all the more enjoyable. That evening was the night of Splash Bash. I wanted to go, but because I was going to Boiling Lake early the next morning, it didn't make sense to waste the money. Instead, RCF organized an impromptu 80's night and so I had something to do. Harper isn't a huge fan of the big parties much like myself so I invited him to join me. After studying, we grabbed dinner at Tika's (some delicious calzones that weren't too oily this time), then headed to the CAC. We watched Back To The Future. Oh young Michael J Fox, so dreamy and Canadian. It was the first time Harper had seen the movie and he enjoyed it. After the movie, we headed home and I tried my best to fall asleep. I think I finally passed out around 11, which isn't bad at all, but for whatever reason, I woke up at 3:45 and I didn't need to be up until 5. So that was incredibly frustrating. I spent the next hour and 15 minutes lying in bed with the fan on waiting for the familiar sounds of "With Everything" to chime in.
I got out of bed, changed, ate breakfast, packed my lunch, packed my bag and headed to the main gate. There were 11 of us who loaded up in a van and spent the next hour on a winding bumpy road. I don't typically get car sick, but I'm sure the lack of sleep didn't help. By the time we got to the entrance to the trail, I wanted to get walking so that I wouldn't hurl up my nutritious Honey Nut Flavoured O Rings. Took us a while to mobilize, but once we got started, I b-lined it to the front so that I could go at my pace until I felt better. Esther was up there with me and we were the leaders of the pack (vroom vroom) for essentially the entire hike. Andrew was the leader of the trip so he had to stay back with the slower folk. I'm sure if he was able to let loose, he'd be ahead of us.
It was a nice hike and very reminiscent of hiking in BC, at least in the forested areas. The weather was overcast and of course the air is so clean that it really did feel like BC and that alone rejuvenates me.
The hike is about 3 hours to the lake and then of course 3 hours back. So it's quite nearly an all day affair. With our crew needing to stay relatively together, it was more of a 4 hour deal (8 altogether). You need to pace yourself, stay hydrated, and eat. At the halfway point to the lake, there's this wide open peak where you get this amazing view of the mountains around you.
After that point, the terrain is less BC-ish and more rocky and dry as you get closer to the sulphur springs. The hike is less leisurely as the "steps" are gone, there isn't a path, and you have to carefully plan out how you traverse through a myriad of rocks. There's one part call the Valley of Desolation (pictured below). That's right, we're figuring out our steps as a mini river runs past us making rocks slippery and mobile.
Once you get to the springs you need to again, watch where you walk as there are little springs nearby that cause the rocks to look stable but really resemble quicksand. Andrew wanted to show Chris and Esther one such area, but didn't indicate that he didn't want them to come over to see for themselves. This resulted in Chris' left foot sinking down into a hot sulphuric mess of burning cement-like liquid. He managed to wriggle himself free with his shoe still stuck in the ground. Much cursing ensued as burning sensations are never fun nor are little cuts from ripping your leg out of hot rocky mess. Andrew fished out Chris' shoe and went to wash and cool it off in a non-sulphuric body of water. Chris didn't suffer any serious burns which is remarkable, but it definitely affected the rest of the trip for him.
After another hour of hiking we got to the Lake. It's the second largest boiling lake in the world. The largest is in New Zealand. It's hard to get any good pictures of it because of the massive amounts of steam it creates. There's bit of a slanted cliff such that able-bodied people can climb down to the lake. I don't know if you've looked at me, but I'm fairly able-bodied (and yes, I'm being a cocky bastard). It was pretty awesome to get close to the lake and be in awe of the fact that a large body of water is boiling in front of you. The earth is an amazing creation. Sure the smell and steam sucked, but you can't help but be in slapped in the face with greatness. We stayed there for a good while and took plenty of pictures before heading back the way we came. The upside to the return trip is that it's always easier to climb up rocks than traverse down them. The downside is that you remember all the steps that took up half the trip and stairs are never fun when you're getting a bit weary. Chris was weary and lumbering around leading him to slip and fall a few times. Nothing serious, but painful nonetheless. 
At the end of the hike, there's a little pond leading to a gorge and waterfall. It wasn't the best idea for our muscles, but half of us decided to go for a swim in the cold water anyways. I didn't take any pictures, but Andrew did, and hopefully you'll see them on Facebook (assuming they're not ruined). Andrew's camera isn't waterproof so he swam with it in his mouth which caused him to expend a considerable amount of energy. It was just Esther, Andrew, and I when we decided to head back to the crew. Esther and I swam ahead to find an area where you could stand so that Andrew knew where he could take a breather. We found a spot about 20 feet from the waterfall and waited for him. About three feet from us, a look of horror came over his face as all of his lower limb muscles started cramping. He went under and Esther (being closest to him) grabbed him to relative safety. While squeezing the crap out of our hands, Andrew was swearing like a sailor (Caroline, you'll be happy to know that I didn't utter one single profanity during the trip. The boys more than made up for it). We tried our best to help him stretch out his muscles underwater, but given how the body works, if you're stretching one group, you're contracting another, and he was cramping everywhere. After much struggling and swearing, we stood shoulder deep in water, and Andrew looked at us and said "I can't swim". Esther and I just looked at each other and realized that we'd need to swim Andrew to the next section where he could stand, about a 30 foot trip around a bend. We started out, but by the 15 ft mark, we were struggling. I never realized how hard it is to swim when you've got one hand available and you keep getting your legs entangled with two other people. For the last 10, Andrew clued in that Esther and I were failing to get the job done and he channeled another gear, we'll call it the "If I don't swim, I'm going to die" gear. We got to the pond area, caught our breath, and climbed out. Exhausted would be putting everything incredibly lightly.
We left around 4:30. I decided I'd take a Dramamine for the trip back, though in hindsight it probably wasn't necessary. I don't think I'd even have the energy to throw up. Needless to say, I was out within 10 minutes on the road. Woke up when we were being dropped off at the main gate. We all drowsily fell out of the van and went our separate ways walking like crippled zombies home. I got home, ordered delivery from Golden Dragon, thoroughly showered, scarfed down the dinner as if I hadn't eaten anything all day, and then headed to the annex to attempt to study. It was only 7:30, but I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open. I decided I'd warm up my mind by responding to some emails and then hitting the books. To those people, I'm sorry if I was at all incoherent or repetitive. I started studying Anatomy and then my head snapped back and I woke up to see it was 8:30. Don't exactly know when I passed out, but the fact was that studying really wasn't going to happen. I finished the Anatomy section and headed home. By 10 I was in bed and down for the count.
I woke up around 7:30, and then dosed off 'til the alarm went off at 9:15. That's a Dominican record for me. Definitely proud of myself. I don't think I've ever done a 6 hour hike before, but when I got out of bed, there was no forgetting that I did. I was definitely stiff. My shoulders, my quads, my calves. My butt was fine though, mighty fine. Throughout the morning, I had "With Everything" playing in its entirely on repeat. This time focusing on the drums. I guess I'm starting to miss playing those too now. Had myself a leisurely breakfast and then headed to church. Chris was there and very stiff and sore. I'm sure he wished we were the type of church that sat throughout the service. By the last song, which happened to be "With Everything", my legs were feeling the stress of prolonged standing. Chris is a giant, but thankfully Amy's an elf so I had plenty of buffer space to switch the weight-bearing leg without hitting anyone. Had a quick lunch and headed to the annex to get some work done before my soccer game at 3. I know what you're thinking "Why are you playing soccer after you've just hiked the entire day before?". I figured I'd take it easy and just get those muscles doing some light work to shake out the stiffness. Turned out that our team had most of the roster show up, meaning we had quite a few subs available. Then we realized that our ref didn't show up and suddenly I found myself with a whistle around my neck and watch to keep time. This way, I got to decide how much I ran without feeling pressure to perform. I barely called anything except for half-time, when the players weren't sure if it was a corner or a goal kick, and the end of the game. Don't get me wrong, there were lots of penalties to call, but I played the advantage and let it go both ways (so I was consistently bad). I even had to tell my own team how I was calling it when they felt like a call should have been made in their favour. In the end, we won 4-2 and thank God, all the goals were on clean plays. After the game, Colonel asked me about my worship leading experience. I told him that I used to play guitar while leading, and when I wasn't leading I would usually play drums and the odd time bass. He told me that half our worship leaders are 4th semesters so they'll be gone by mid August. So I said I'd be happy to help out. It'll be nice to hold a guitar or a set of sticks again.
On the walk home I passed by Amy (who wasn't at the game). Her knee's not doing so great so she might be done for the season, which would royally suck as I really don't like being the only girl on the team. It also sucks that she's in 4th as I feel like I'm just getting to know how awesome she is and I only have just over a month to figure the rest out.
Got home to shower, do some studying from home, eat dinner, then head back to campus where RCF was hosting a "Worship Night". I wasn't sure what it all entailed but Amy told me it's an awesome event and that I should come out. It was out on the Subway deck and the congregation from a local church was there too. There were songs that we all sung together and then there were special performances done by various individuals. There was a dance number, an African medley, an incredible rap duo (with Colonel), and a reprise of the African medley for all of us to dance to at the end. Good times. Good sweaty, bug infested times.
So yeah, that's a massive post for ya. Did ya miss them? Since the next mini is a month away, you'll probably get the bi-weekly deal again (you lucky duck). Then you'll be weened down to one a week until after my final which is one week after the mini. Depending on what I'm up to during the break, you just might get one every day (bahaha yeah right)
I wasn't sure how the student health insurance worked here, but I soon found out that you pay, fill out a claim, have the form signed by a doctor, and then mail it to the insurance office in the states. A blood test costs $230 EC (~$90 CDN) and the clinic takes cash or cheque. So I ran to the bank (keeping my hand on the puncture site to prevent bruising, of course), withdrew the cash, paid for the test, grabbed a claim form, headed to the mail room to pick up my health care card (which I should have received when I first got here), and made an appointment for next week to go over results when I'll also get my claim form signed. *sigh* I miss Canada. I miss our health care system.
After all of that, I did some quick grocery shopping, cooled off in the shower, and then headed to class for 10am. We're on the Cardio & Respiratory block now. Last block of the semester. The thing about Ross is that you've got a lot of international professors. Some of them you can understand just fine. Others not so much. It was probably because I had come into the middle of a lecture and hadn't heard the man speak before, but it took me far too long than I care to admit to figure out that every time he said "vlasic" he was trying to say "thoracic". I remember thinking, "What the heck is a vlasicocentisis?" Yeah, I'm usually not on my game the day after an exam. After class, I left my stuff in the annex and walked home with Genny (who I sit around and lives two stories above me), ate lunch, then headed back to the annex to Mediasite the first two hours I missed. At 2:15, I headed home to change and pack up my stuff for my PBL session followed by a soccer game. Upon leaving PBL, I crossed paths with a classmate who's from Edmonton, Gurtej. He said "Hey, did you hear about the Wild?" If you want to make sure you have my attention, always start with a statement that pertains to hockey, ice cream, or music. I hadn't heard anything about the free agency frenzy that day. I've been following it periodically but it was pretty slow and uneventful in the beginning. So Gurtej kindly informed me that Minnesota signed BOTH Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to 13 year contracts paying out over 7 million a year. WHAT?!?!?! Where are they getting the money from? Was their roster so underpaid that they were well below the cap? Anyways, with hockey on the mind, I headed to Jenner field to get my soccer on. We had the same crew as last time, plus a new guy, Marlon. We played incredibly well - carried the play but couldn't finish our scoring chances. Finally in the second half, they were going in and we won 3-0. Apparently we won it for America...I guess America could use a win, so I let it slide.
Walked home with Amy and her friend/classmate Tom. Both are going to Michigan for their 5th and they were chatting about the struggles that will face them in terms of getting clinical rotations and electives that are "greenbook" in that they're approved by the ACGME. Definitely an overwhelming topic to listen in on, but I had already heard about these challenges. It was just tough to hear how stressful it was for them, know that I'll eventually deal with that, and know that nothing I could do at the moment could help any of us. "Clear eyes, full hearts - can't lose"?
In the annex, I sit in the far right section about midway down the rows. The same group of people are there: Chris is usually beside me, Max & Genny behind me, Maz & Gurtej in front, Tanja in front of them, Joe on the right and a smattering of regular guest appearances. We all chat and joke with each other and we've created a wonderful community there. Well anyways, since the mini, some people have changed their seating arrangements, but our group remains intact. I don't know if it's because they were being distracted where they were before or whatever, but one particular student has moved into our vicinity and is throwing our groove off. He's notorious for asking far too many questions during lecture and dictating them at the slowest speed possible. In a speed reading contest, he'd be dead last...to Stephen Hawking...with a Pentium III processor (those came out in 1999). If he were to have a telephone conversation with Gavin, it would take all day ("Heeeeeeeyyy Kirst. Hooow's it goooing" I love you bro, but you know it's true). If 50% of his questions were questions that benefit the class, I might be ok with it, but that's not the case. So having him mere meters away is proving to be a trying experience. During our micro anatomy lecture he had issues with a particular figure. It was a cross section of a blood vessel except the figure didn't show the entire vessel, but rather a piece of it (like a piece of pie). For whatever reason, he couldn't understand what he was looking at, didn't know what was what and which direction the blood flowed. So of course he requested that our professor walk him through the diagram so he could understand it. First off, if the issue is something that only you are struggling with, then ask your classmate next to you (even if it's me), or talk to the prof during the break or during office hours, don't waste the entire class' time; that's just being selfish. Normally, I'd have a chuckle to myself or with my "community members", but this request was so ridiculous (and about the fifth one he asked within the hour) that I didn't know what to do so I just put my head in my hands, breathed, and then shuddered with the type of contained laughter that could turn to cries of agony. Don't worry, I was in the same row as Question Man separated by a couple people, so he wouldn't have seen me (plus he was busy breaking the Da Vinci Code). What I didn't count on was Rachel seeing me. She sits in the front row on the left aisle seat. A few minutes later, I got a message from her expressing her pleasure in watching my reaction to Question Man. At least I'm making someone's day a bit brighter.We had a good chat during the break that followed.
So what did we learn? I can be incredibly sarcastic and I tend to laugh at stupid people, but somehow you either love me for it or in spite of it. Rachel chose the former. I like Rachel.
Friday lectures went alright. Admittedly, messaging back and forth with Rachel made it all the more enjoyable. That evening was the night of Splash Bash. I wanted to go, but because I was going to Boiling Lake early the next morning, it didn't make sense to waste the money. Instead, RCF organized an impromptu 80's night and so I had something to do. Harper isn't a huge fan of the big parties much like myself so I invited him to join me. After studying, we grabbed dinner at Tika's (some delicious calzones that weren't too oily this time), then headed to the CAC. We watched Back To The Future. Oh young Michael J Fox, so dreamy and Canadian. It was the first time Harper had seen the movie and he enjoyed it. After the movie, we headed home and I tried my best to fall asleep. I think I finally passed out around 11, which isn't bad at all, but for whatever reason, I woke up at 3:45 and I didn't need to be up until 5. So that was incredibly frustrating. I spent the next hour and 15 minutes lying in bed with the fan on waiting for the familiar sounds of "With Everything" to chime in.
I got out of bed, changed, ate breakfast, packed my lunch, packed my bag and headed to the main gate. There were 11 of us who loaded up in a van and spent the next hour on a winding bumpy road. I don't typically get car sick, but I'm sure the lack of sleep didn't help. By the time we got to the entrance to the trail, I wanted to get walking so that I wouldn't hurl up my nutritious Honey Nut Flavoured O Rings. Took us a while to mobilize, but once we got started, I b-lined it to the front so that I could go at my pace until I felt better. Esther was up there with me and we were the leaders of the pack (vroom vroom) for essentially the entire hike. Andrew was the leader of the trip so he had to stay back with the slower folk. I'm sure if he was able to let loose, he'd be ahead of us.
It was a nice hike and very reminiscent of hiking in BC, at least in the forested areas. The weather was overcast and of course the air is so clean that it really did feel like BC and that alone rejuvenates me. The hike is about 3 hours to the lake and then of course 3 hours back. So it's quite nearly an all day affair. With our crew needing to stay relatively together, it was more of a 4 hour deal (8 altogether). You need to pace yourself, stay hydrated, and eat. At the halfway point to the lake, there's this wide open peak where you get this amazing view of the mountains around you.
After that point, the terrain is less BC-ish and more rocky and dry as you get closer to the sulphur springs. The hike is less leisurely as the "steps" are gone, there isn't a path, and you have to carefully plan out how you traverse through a myriad of rocks. There's one part call the Valley of Desolation (pictured below). That's right, we're figuring out our steps as a mini river runs past us making rocks slippery and mobile.
Once you get to the springs you need to again, watch where you walk as there are little springs nearby that cause the rocks to look stable but really resemble quicksand. Andrew wanted to show Chris and Esther one such area, but didn't indicate that he didn't want them to come over to see for themselves. This resulted in Chris' left foot sinking down into a hot sulphuric mess of burning cement-like liquid. He managed to wriggle himself free with his shoe still stuck in the ground. Much cursing ensued as burning sensations are never fun nor are little cuts from ripping your leg out of hot rocky mess. Andrew fished out Chris' shoe and went to wash and cool it off in a non-sulphuric body of water. Chris didn't suffer any serious burns which is remarkable, but it definitely affected the rest of the trip for him.
After another hour of hiking we got to the Lake. It's the second largest boiling lake in the world. The largest is in New Zealand. It's hard to get any good pictures of it because of the massive amounts of steam it creates. There's bit of a slanted cliff such that able-bodied people can climb down to the lake. I don't know if you've looked at me, but I'm fairly able-bodied (and yes, I'm being a cocky bastard). It was pretty awesome to get close to the lake and be in awe of the fact that a large body of water is boiling in front of you. The earth is an amazing creation. Sure the smell and steam sucked, but you can't help but be in slapped in the face with greatness. We stayed there for a good while and took plenty of pictures before heading back the way we came. The upside to the return trip is that it's always easier to climb up rocks than traverse down them. The downside is that you remember all the steps that took up half the trip and stairs are never fun when you're getting a bit weary. Chris was weary and lumbering around leading him to slip and fall a few times. Nothing serious, but painful nonetheless. 
At the end of the hike, there's a little pond leading to a gorge and waterfall. It wasn't the best idea for our muscles, but half of us decided to go for a swim in the cold water anyways. I didn't take any pictures, but Andrew did, and hopefully you'll see them on Facebook (assuming they're not ruined). Andrew's camera isn't waterproof so he swam with it in his mouth which caused him to expend a considerable amount of energy. It was just Esther, Andrew, and I when we decided to head back to the crew. Esther and I swam ahead to find an area where you could stand so that Andrew knew where he could take a breather. We found a spot about 20 feet from the waterfall and waited for him. About three feet from us, a look of horror came over his face as all of his lower limb muscles started cramping. He went under and Esther (being closest to him) grabbed him to relative safety. While squeezing the crap out of our hands, Andrew was swearing like a sailor (Caroline, you'll be happy to know that I didn't utter one single profanity during the trip. The boys more than made up for it). We tried our best to help him stretch out his muscles underwater, but given how the body works, if you're stretching one group, you're contracting another, and he was cramping everywhere. After much struggling and swearing, we stood shoulder deep in water, and Andrew looked at us and said "I can't swim". Esther and I just looked at each other and realized that we'd need to swim Andrew to the next section where he could stand, about a 30 foot trip around a bend. We started out, but by the 15 ft mark, we were struggling. I never realized how hard it is to swim when you've got one hand available and you keep getting your legs entangled with two other people. For the last 10, Andrew clued in that Esther and I were failing to get the job done and he channeled another gear, we'll call it the "If I don't swim, I'm going to die" gear. We got to the pond area, caught our breath, and climbed out. Exhausted would be putting everything incredibly lightly.
We left around 4:30. I decided I'd take a Dramamine for the trip back, though in hindsight it probably wasn't necessary. I don't think I'd even have the energy to throw up. Needless to say, I was out within 10 minutes on the road. Woke up when we were being dropped off at the main gate. We all drowsily fell out of the van and went our separate ways walking like crippled zombies home. I got home, ordered delivery from Golden Dragon, thoroughly showered, scarfed down the dinner as if I hadn't eaten anything all day, and then headed to the annex to attempt to study. It was only 7:30, but I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open. I decided I'd warm up my mind by responding to some emails and then hitting the books. To those people, I'm sorry if I was at all incoherent or repetitive. I started studying Anatomy and then my head snapped back and I woke up to see it was 8:30. Don't exactly know when I passed out, but the fact was that studying really wasn't going to happen. I finished the Anatomy section and headed home. By 10 I was in bed and down for the count.
I woke up around 7:30, and then dosed off 'til the alarm went off at 9:15. That's a Dominican record for me. Definitely proud of myself. I don't think I've ever done a 6 hour hike before, but when I got out of bed, there was no forgetting that I did. I was definitely stiff. My shoulders, my quads, my calves. My butt was fine though, mighty fine. Throughout the morning, I had "With Everything" playing in its entirely on repeat. This time focusing on the drums. I guess I'm starting to miss playing those too now. Had myself a leisurely breakfast and then headed to church. Chris was there and very stiff and sore. I'm sure he wished we were the type of church that sat throughout the service. By the last song, which happened to be "With Everything", my legs were feeling the stress of prolonged standing. Chris is a giant, but thankfully Amy's an elf so I had plenty of buffer space to switch the weight-bearing leg without hitting anyone. Had a quick lunch and headed to the annex to get some work done before my soccer game at 3. I know what you're thinking "Why are you playing soccer after you've just hiked the entire day before?". I figured I'd take it easy and just get those muscles doing some light work to shake out the stiffness. Turned out that our team had most of the roster show up, meaning we had quite a few subs available. Then we realized that our ref didn't show up and suddenly I found myself with a whistle around my neck and watch to keep time. This way, I got to decide how much I ran without feeling pressure to perform. I barely called anything except for half-time, when the players weren't sure if it was a corner or a goal kick, and the end of the game. Don't get me wrong, there were lots of penalties to call, but I played the advantage and let it go both ways (so I was consistently bad). I even had to tell my own team how I was calling it when they felt like a call should have been made in their favour. In the end, we won 4-2 and thank God, all the goals were on clean plays. After the game, Colonel asked me about my worship leading experience. I told him that I used to play guitar while leading, and when I wasn't leading I would usually play drums and the odd time bass. He told me that half our worship leaders are 4th semesters so they'll be gone by mid August. So I said I'd be happy to help out. It'll be nice to hold a guitar or a set of sticks again.
On the walk home I passed by Amy (who wasn't at the game). Her knee's not doing so great so she might be done for the season, which would royally suck as I really don't like being the only girl on the team. It also sucks that she's in 4th as I feel like I'm just getting to know how awesome she is and I only have just over a month to figure the rest out.
Got home to shower, do some studying from home, eat dinner, then head back to campus where RCF was hosting a "Worship Night". I wasn't sure what it all entailed but Amy told me it's an awesome event and that I should come out. It was out on the Subway deck and the congregation from a local church was there too. There were songs that we all sung together and then there were special performances done by various individuals. There was a dance number, an African medley, an incredible rap duo (with Colonel), and a reprise of the African medley for all of us to dance to at the end. Good times. Good sweaty, bug infested times.
So yeah, that's a massive post for ya. Did ya miss them? Since the next mini is a month away, you'll probably get the bi-weekly deal again (you lucky duck). Then you'll be weened down to one a week until after my final which is one week after the mini. Depending on what I'm up to during the break, you just might get one every day (bahaha yeah right)
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