Blah, Blah, Blah

I've been feeling rather blah this week. I don't know exactly why, but I'm just overwhelming tired and I don't feel quite right. I had a cold a couple of weeks ago that really sucked the energy out of me, but I'm over that little virus now so I'm not sure why I feel so blah. Perhaps it is allergies or maybe I do still have a little viral illness, or maybe my body is just catching up on sleep since we got so little in Dominica (I was lucky to get 6 hours of sleep in Dominica and I never slept more than 2 or 3 hours in a row in Dominica). I really don't know why I'm so blah, tired and sleeping so much this week--I'm not a doctor, I'm just a medical student!

We had a relatively light week of classes last week compared to the craziness of next week. Not only do we have our usual Large Group lecture on Wednesday and our Small Group lecture, we have over 30 hours of assigned clinical work next week. In addition, we have our Medical Spanish and UMBR (University Medical Board Review classes for Step 1 (our first boards) that we will take next fall). Anyway, it is going to be a crazy week. The schedule for next week came out Thursday (one of my gripes for this semester is that our schedule comes out so late). After realizing what a busy week it would be, Farley and I headed to the store. I decided that now is as good a time as ever to try my Mom's pulled pork recipe. This recipe calls for 8Lbs of pork shoulder (bone in) and cooks for hours before being pulled apart and mixed with BBQ sauce. Farley was a good sport and helped me pull the pounds of pork. I tried just a little of the pulled pork before putting it in the freezer for next week and it was amazing, just like when Mom makes it. In addition to the pulled pork recipe, Mom gave me a recipe for beef stew, which I also made on Thursday and it was exceptional as well.

Keeping the excitement alive, I've started studying for my next exam. I know, living in South Florida sounds fast paced and exciting, but being in medical school doesn't leave much time for excitment. After living in a 3rd world country, I am excited to have hot water on demand, a clean house, grocery stores with lots of exciting food and a quiet place to sleep so I can sleep for more than two hours at a time. This semester isn't as academically challenging as the previous semesters, but they are keeping us extremely busy. As this is a transition semester, we only have about 8-10 hours per week of "testable material". Now don't get me wrong, everything I do is testable, but since students are doing different rotations each week, not everyone will cover the same information in our rotations until the end of the semester. For example, Farley and I already did the Basic Trauma and Life Support rotation last week but other students in our class may not do that rotation until the last week of the semester so the information we learned in our rotation on Basic Trauma and Life Support will not be on the exam. The only information on the exams is the information the entire class receives, which are from the large group lectures (usually 6-8 hours per week) and the small group lectures (2 hours per week). Thus, we have about 8-10 hours of lecture that will show up on our exams whereas on the island we had 30-35 hours of lecture per week that would be fair game for the exams. This transition semester is as much about learning basic clinical skills as it is continuing the books, which is different than the first two years of medical school. Now, don't get me wrong, this semester isn't all butterflies and roses we are extremely busy, it is just different and in many ways more fun.

South Florida hasn't had the best weather lately which has been okay since we really don't have tons of time. We haven't had a chance to go to Miami Beach and enjoy the water for a few hours or grab some Rocky's Italian Ice on South Beach. There are many things that I didn't get to see the last time I lived in Miami and I'm hoping we might have a few free afternoons to do a bit of exploring after our next exam. I would like to see Coco Walk, go to Lincoln Road for some window shopping, there are museums to explore in Vizcaya and of course, I'd love to drive down to the Keys for the day or go to the Everglades (which are only a 1.5 hour and 2 hour drive respectively). I want to explore and see the area if possible, but I also realize that I probably won't be able to do most of the things on my to-do list because we are so busy this semester and then we will be preparing for the boards. But heck, I can always come back and visit in 50 years after I pay back my student loans!

There is a cute shopping district with tons of Ma & Pa restaurants and shops just a couple blocks from my condo. I'll take a few pictures of the area the next time I venture out for a movie, a walk around the giant bookstore or to grab some of my favorite gelato. It is a rich area with BMW and Mercedes Benzes as ubiquitous as Hondas in most towns. Obviously given the wealth, Ferrais, Lamborghinis and Porsches make frequent appearances at the shopping district as well.