Mother's Day

Mom and I went to Mass at St. Patrick's Church on Miami Beach. I usually go to the 5:00pm on Sunday, but we went to the 9:30am Sunday Mass because the choir sings at that mass. Now, this choir isn't just a group of singers from the parish. It is audition group that has toured Italy and New York. They have performed at the Vatican and Carnegie Hall. The music at the 5:00pm Mass is always amazing, but it is nothing compared to the Sunday Mass. Mom and I both had chills the whole mass. They are unbelievable. You can watch the Mass online at St. Patrick's website, but I am not sure if you would get the same feeling as being there in person. Mom said that she might watch from home, which would make me feel close to home: we would be at the same service.

After Mass, we headed down to 13th Street and Collins to park closer to the action in South Beach. Here is a picture from the parking garage.

The first place we had to stop was Miami Ink. Mom needed her picture taken in front of the shop because she loved the show (it hasn't been on the air in a while). She wanted to go in and get a tattoo, but decided against it.
We went down Espanola Way, which is a famous little street in South Beach. Many movies have filmed there, such as The Birdcage with Robin Williams and Miami Vice. We decided that we would go back for dinner as I wanted to go to the Van Dyke for brunch. Luckily, the food at the Van Dyke was as good as the jazz was in the bar. We had a great time and sat out side. Here is a picture of the Van Dyke:

The Van Dyke is on Lincoln Road so Mom and I did a little shopping. Here is a picture of her near one of the many water features.

Here is a picture of Lincoln Road.
Here is a famous theater, the Lincoln Theatre. This is where the New World Symphony performs in Miami.

We decided to get some gelato at a local shop. It was excellent.
We stopped and Mom (and Dad from home) bought me a birthday present: an i phone. I thought about getting one last year, but I was afraid it was too expensive. However, my i pod can't get online at the hospitals (to access drug databases and such) and my old phone had a horrible Internet browser. I didn't think it would be possible because I thought I wasn't due for a new phone until next year, but the salesman made it happen and I got the phone at the same price as if I was due to renew. Anyway, I sure didn't think I was going to get a new phone and I LOVE it. I feel so spoiled!

After getting the coolest phone ever, we had to stop by Dash to get our pictures taken. They were not open! Apparently, there is a problem with the staff in Miami and they are not open regular hours. I was disappointed that they were not open because they had some really, really cute stuff. They are also really off the beaten path. Most of the nice more expensive shopping is on Lincoln Road, which is between 16th and 17th street. Dash is located on 8th street, which is near all the hot spot night clubs and it is near some of the sleazy parts of Washington Street. Anyway, here are the pictures.

After going to Dash, we had to hurry to Fort Lauderdale to pick up Farley. After we got him, we headed back down to Espansola Way for dinner. We decided to go to a Mexican place. It is so quaint down there. I just love it. The only problem is that is is only two blocks.

Moving from Miami

My time in Miami is coming to a close. After the exam, Farley and I didn't do too much on Friday. We, obviously, had to go to the gym, run errands and clean the apartment. We spent a good two or three hours cleaning the apartment. On Saturday, our land lord come by to make sure we hadn't ruined the apartment so we could get our safety deposit back. After that, we continued our exciting times in Miami by packing. On Sunday, we headed to see some of Farley's family and started to pack our suit cases. Monday, we had to run all over Miami. We had to drop off some internet equipment, go to goodwill, take boxes to the post office, and we made a stop to get Cuban food one last time before dropping off the car at the rental agency. We decided to go to a movie since we were finished with our work earlier than anticipated. We saw An Education which is a coming of age story about a young girl who is seduced by an older man. It was good movie but not horribly exciting. It was what Farley calls "a people story". After the movie, we headed to school to print our boarding passes and such. Then we went out to Dan Marino's for Farley's birthday dinner. It isn't my favorite restaurant but it was very good.

Tuesday, I woke up early and got in a work out before finishing up my last little odds and ends before leaving. Farley's flight was at 2:30 and mine was at 5:00 so we were at the airport at 12:30. I thought that the airport would be super busy but it wasn't. Farley and I were flying on different airlines but luckily we were both sent to the same security place. I sat with him until he left then headed to get a late lunch. Finally, it was time for me to board the plane. We were headed to Denver, which is a four hour flight. I was on the aisle seat and there was a couple next to me. I feel asleep right after take off, but I was woken up by the gentleman's earphones next to me. I presume he was hard of hearing because I didn't have on the headphones, but I could hear the whole in flight movie. I managed to put it behind me and get back to sleep then the person in front of me pushed her seat back. I assumed this was an older woman with poor joints so I didn't say anything. Well, a few hours later I saw her and she was probably 22 years old. Gosh, I can't imagine pushing my seat back that far back. It seems a bit rude to me, especially for such a young woman (who was probably 5 foot 6 and 130Lb). As if that wasn't enough, the guy next to me started yelling out the names of the characters in the Harry Potter move that was playing. Then after the movie ended a t.v. show came on and he yelled "choo choo" when a train was on the show. I was beginning to wonder if there was something funny going on with him, but I'm still not sure. His wife was in window seat and I think she was a college professor. She was grading papers and her mannerism and dress just screamed professor to me. When the drinks came around, she made me laugh because she ordered a blood mary then continued grading papers. I'm sure she wasn't drunk, but it didn't seem that professional to me. Then again, maybe the papers were so bad that she needed a drink. The flight from Denver to Spokane was much less eventful. I was so excited to get home and get to bed; however, Mom and Dad had other plans. They got me a subscription to the New England Journal of Medicine. How exciting! I'm a member of the American Medical Student Association and they were having a deal with the New England Journal of Medicine a few weeks ago. The pamphlet arrived at my parent's house. Mom asked if I needed it and I said not at this point in my career but it would be fun and the price is fabulous. It was such a fun surprise. By the time I headed to bed, it was hard to believe that I had woke up in Miami.

It's that time of year again: Elf Yourself!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I know that it isn't even Thanksgiving yet, but the Christmas decorations are arriving in the stores. Let me tell you it is strange when it is 86 degrees in Miami and there are plastic snow flakes on the windows at Target. I know I'm a little early for Christmas, but I just LOVE this elf yourself website.

Happy Birthday!

It is a special person's birthday today: Farley! Unfortunately, Farley and I have both had big tests near our birthdays this year. I had the comprehensive exam the day before my birthday and obviously we are taking the USMLE step 1 next week. Thus, we don't get to go out to dinner or do anything fun today for Farley's birthday.

Since his birthday is so close to the exam, I bought his present a month ago. Regrettably, it was delivered while we were eating dinner and he signed for it. He didn't know what it was, but he got to shake the box. I intended on hiding it in my room until this week, but the day it arrived I put it on my bed and went back into the kitchen. I heard a strange noise and looked out into the living room where he was shaking and listening to the box. A little while later, I joked that I should put it under the banana tree and we could call it the birthday tree. (The banana tree is a holder to keep the bananas from getting those yucky black marks on them). Later, I went to open the box to make sure that his present arrived in one piece, and it was missing. I was a little panicked until I looked under the banana tree--Farley moved it while I wasn't looking. I grabbed the and opened the box, wrapped up his presents, put them back in the box, wrapped the box and put it back under the banana tree where it sat until his birthday. I was going to get a picture, but Farley wanted to open it a little earlier than I thought he would. It has been sitting there for a month so he opened his present a few hours early (before I had time to bake the brownies and sing "Happy Birthday"... perhaps it was the thought of my singing that made him want to open the present early). Since he loves reading, I got him a couple of novels for after the exam.

Happy Birthday Farley!!

Lentil Soup and Beef Stew

On Mondays, I try to do most of my cooking for the week since Mondays are our day off while we are studying for Step 1. Farley is fairly easy to cook for because when he decides he likes something, he will eat it every day. I, on the other hand, like some variety. Recently, he has decided that he wants lentil soup and beef stew. The beef stew I can understand because he loves meat, but I was a bit surprised about the lentil soup. I asked him why he wanted lentils so much this fall and I thought his response would be something like, "My mom made it when I was a kid." I was wrong. One of our Kaplan video lecturers said that fiber inhibits the uptake of cholesterol from the gastrointestinal tract, which is basically how drugs known as bile acid sequestrates work. Farley decided that we should eat more fiber and lentils are extremely high in fiber. I wanted to do something different this week but he really wants to make sure that our cholesterol is kept in check, so we are having lentil soup again. He was so excited to get more lentil soup and beef stew that he chopped veggies, beef and helped me cook for an hour. I took a few pictures, but I don't know if the pictures look as good as it tastes.



Above: Double batch of Beef Stew
Below: Lentil Soup (many lentils were at the bottom of the Tupperware)

Bagger!

Farley and I take turns buying groceries and today it was my turn. We loaded up everything onto the conveyor belt and said hello to the Cashier and to the Bagger. As we said hello, the Bagger replied, "Well this should be interesting, who is going to pay?" I got out my wallet and the Bagger then looked Farley in the eye and declared that "men should pay for food." I told him it was my turn. Then the Bagger told me that, "Men should pay for food and women should stay home and cook." I don't think there is anything wrong with women staying at home, but obviously, that isn't for me. I looked at him and informed him that was I halfway though medical school and I wouldn't be staying at home anytime soon to cook all day, besides I owe so much in student loans I couldn't quit now even if I wanted too (which I don't). Then Bagger looks at me and said something like, "Well what does he (Farley) do all day?" When I replied that he is halfway through medical school too, I don't think the Bagger knew what to say next. At that point, I needed to finish paying and Farley had to deal with him. After we left the store, Farley and I discussed Bagger a little more. I think Bagger probably had a low IQ making him slightly mentally retarded (I'm not typing that to be politically incorrect, but it still says mentally retarded in medical text books not special needs). Also, I'm not just saying that because he thinkgs women shouldn't work; I really think using the medical knowledge that I have obtained since starting medical school that Bagger has a low IQ (and Farley agreed). If Farley and I are correct, I'm very happy that Bagger found a job and that he is able to be somewhat independent. If not, well, I wish he would stop irritating people in line and the nice cashier lady.

Many times Farley and I have been out and people asked what we do. We usually try to respond that we are in school and inevitably we are asked about what we are studying. When we say that we are third year medical students, there have been several people (in Miami) who have actually said, "That is wonderful.. He is going to be a doctor and you will be a nurse!" Nurses are great and it is a wonderful profession, but I didn't go all the way to a Caribbean medical school to be a nurse. It really irks me that people assume because I'm a woman I can't/won't be a physician. Living in Miami is like living in a different world sometimes.

I'm coming home!

Farley and I just booked our flights home for November 24th. Farley is heading home a couple hours before me, so I'm sure I'll be sad and crying at the airport (I hate to see him leave and this will be the longest time we've been apart in two years), but it is also going to be exciting to be home for Thanksgiving. I just hope that our flights go smoothly and that we are able to get all of our odds and ends finished in Miami before heading out. Speaking of things to finish up, I have a little test on November 19th so I should get back to my studies. See you soon!!

Cold Front

Yesterday it was 60 degrees for the high in South Florida. Now, I know 60 degrees doesn't sound too bad to all of you up north, but I've grown accustomed to the 90s with about 99% humidity. It felt downright frigid. Today, our study day off, I was planning on going to to pool to read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. However, mother nature had another plan: it was in the lower 70s. Now, I know I can't really complain too much, but I look forward to getting outside and enjoying Miami every Monday afternoon for a couple hours, so I was a bit disappointed today. I'm sure it will be back to the normal 80-90s the rest of the week--when I'm indoors studying for the USMLE step one exam. Speaking of the Step, I've put in my final date (the step is an application process in and of itself, which I started in July). It's getting down to crunch time!

Fall in Florida

Things are still going well down here in Florida. The strange thing about being south in the fall is that it doesn't get cold. It is the end of September and still in the 90s with a million percent humidity. One of the things I miss the most about the north, is the fall days. The crisp air, the colorful leaves and the autumn smells.

However, I can't really complain too much about Florida--I spent part of my "day off" from studying by the pool. Also, the cars are nice. We saw a Lotus today, which stood out in the sea of BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes, Audies, and porsches. Speaking of standing out, there is at least one Bentley that is in the neighborhood. It isn't too often one sees a car that is worth more than my medical school student loans or most people's house.

I'm getting into a groove...

Studying has been going better. I think I'm starting to get into a groove and getting the habit down. I know I posted a little about my 10-12 hours of study schedule before, but here is a little more detail about what my everyday life is like right now.


I wake up about 7:00am, put on make up, get "dressed" (usually into sweats), and enjoy some coffee and breakfast while reading the newspapers online (either on my laptop or on my I-pod). At about 8:00am, I start 100 questions in whatever subject I am studying. The USMLE is comprised of 7 blocks of 50 questions each so I do two blocks 6 days a week to get into the habit of taking 50 questions at a time. That takes me until approximately 10:00am at which point I get to correct all of those questions and review why I got them wrong or why I got them correct. At noon, I take a lunch break and actually get dressed. We leave for the Kaplan center at about 12:45 or so and the drive is 10-15 minutes. From about 1:00-5:00, I watch video lectures at the center and take copious notes. The videos are pretty good. My school videotaped the first two years of medical school so some people would watch the videos on line, but I never like it (it was helpful if you missed something or got sick though). These Kaplan videos are made for the sole purpose of students studying on their own, so they are better (in my opinion) than just watching a lecture from my medical school on video (since lectures at my medical school were intended for you to actually attend). Anyway, after we leave Kaplan at 5:00, we get to take a few hours off. Usually we head down to the gym for 30-40 minutes, shower, have dinner and maybe watch a t.v. show online (remember our giant t.v. and that we choose not to get cable). We are usually back to the books by 7:30ish. In the evenings, I try to review what I've covered in the videos at the Kaplan center and take the recall quizzes at the end of the chapters. I generally study until 10:00 or 10:30 and then try to be asleep by 11:00 so that I get a full 8 hours of sleep before doing it all again. This is my life six days a week.


On the seventh day, we "take the day off." That really means that we only study for 4 hours or so. I don't schedule anything and use this as my catch up day. This last week, I had way to much to do because I had a hard time focusing during my evenings study session (the 7:30pm-10:00pm). I was beginning to get worried that I'd never catch up, but in the last two days I've almost done it. I promised myself that I would put my studies first, especially while preparing for the boards, so since I was feeling so far behind this week, I didn't get to go down to the pool with Farley to relax in the Miami afternoon sun. Rather, I got to sit in front of my computer and books and read more about lipid synthesis and storage. This is one of those times that I reminded myself, that I have an "enviable opportunity to learn".


By the time Farley returned from the pool, he said that I looked as burnt out as I felt. We decided to get out of the house, so we went to Target. I've been wanting to get an apron since we returned to the USA, but I always forget to look. Well, it was my lucky day on Monday because Target was having an apron sale and I got one!! However, I didn't get my apron soon enough. Did you know that watermelon can stain clothes if you get the juices on you? I've cut a lot of watermelon this summer and I have two t-shirts that can attest to this fact. After Target, we headed to the grocery store and I got everything I needed for some almost homemade chicken pot pie (I didn't have time to make the dough so I used crescent rolls, but the rest was from scratch). I even had an excuse to use my apron on the first day!!


I think it is time I get back to my studies...It's 7:35pm!


I couldn't decided which picture to post. I like the top picture more, but in the bottom picture you can see the apron better. I love to cook and bake (and dislike laundry) so I think I'm a little more excited about an apron than most!

Since Returning To Miami

After getting back to Miami late Tuesday night, we have been very busy. We took it easy on Wednesday. I slept a lot, presumably because I was so excited in Spokane I didn't sleep much at all. We went to the gym, grocery store and finally received our Kaplan USMLE Step 1 lecture notes. Yes, the 17 pound box of books finally arrived. There are thousands of pages covering Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, Anatomy, Physiology, Behavioral Science, Pharmacology, Pathology, Immunology and Microbiology. Yes, this is my fun for the next two and a half months or so.



Here is a picture of the books on the coffee table so that you can see approximately how large they are, excluding the question book:


Here is a close of up of the books again excluding the quesiton book:



We headed to the Kaplan center on Thursday for an all day session of study. We were so enthusiastic that we didn't even take a lunch break--that is right, we studied for about 8 hours straight. We were like USMLE machines! First Kaplan makes you take a diagnostic exam. Remember, we two week vacation from studying medicine (although being a medical student, medicine never really leaves the background of your mind, things always pop up to remind you of something). There is a mindset you have to have when you are studying and testing a lot, I presume like an athlete getting ready for a competition, and after two weeks of vacation, I was not in the correct mindset. So, I wasn't thrilled with how I did on the diagnostic exam. Realistically, I made some errors that I probably wouldn't have made if I was paying closer attention and I had details that I couldn't remember. But that is exactly why we are taking this course. I can make as many mistakes as I want now and they don't mean anything...in fact it is almost a good thing to make mistakes because it gives me an opportunity to learn before taking the USMLE in November. I'd rather feel stupid now and make mistakes than make the mistakes on the USMLE.

Kaplan tells us the order in which to study things based upon how we did on this diagnostic exam. The funny thing is that some of the subjects that I have historically struggled in, I performed better than some of the subjects that were easier for me in the last two years. I'm not sure if I performed better on the subjects that were traditionally more difficult for me because I since they are harder for me. Nonetheless, I was surprised. It doesn't really matter as I have to study everything in the next two months.

The study plan we chose involves us going to the Kaplan center to watch DVDs and such. We can also work form home on their website. The last professor that taught for our UMBR (the review course offered during our last semester) is also a Kaplan professor. He gave us an outline of how to organize our studies daily, in light of our review course. Basically, we are to do questions in the morning. Eat a nice long lunch. Review the notes and videos for that day's lectures. Have E.S.S. between 6:00 and say 8:30. E.S.S. in his words is "Exercise, Shower and Socialize...in that order." Then we are to study for another two or three hours--six days per week. The seventh day we are to rest, but we probalby will still do a few hours; like today, we did just four hours. Each of our chapters in the Kaplan review books have quizzes at the end of the book and we get to go online and take another quiz. If we don't meet a certain mark, the computer tells us what to review and gives us other lectures and quizzes to take until we can meet a certain mark.

I know this sounds like fun. I'm sure you too can enjoy a 10-12 hour study day if you want. I like to think of the quote at the top of my blog when I'm sick of studying and remember that is is a privilege to have the time and money resources to study all day. In fact as Einstein says, it is an enviable opportunity to learn. Most days, the studying is rather fun. If it wasn't I wouldn't have made it into my third year of medical school (or as I like to tell younger children, my 20th grade--if you include kindergarten, or my 19th grade--if you don't include kindergarten).

Every day Farley tells me, "Carpe diem." Right now, thinking about the daily schedule can be exhausting, so I'm just thinking "Seize the Biochemistry Chapter"!

Flight back to Miami

As usual, I was crying when I left the Spokane International Airport. However, I think since Farley was with me, I didn't cry as much as usual. I'm not sure if Farley realized, but when I ran into bathroom after getting through security I cried for a few minutes before trying to clean up. I think it is incredibly difficult to leave family and unfortunately, it really hasn't gotten any easier in the two years since I've moved away. Too bad I can't just pack up all the people I love and move them around the country as I travel for school!!

Anyway, the flight to Seattle was rather uneventful. Farley and I didn't get to sit next to each other, which was okay. I think I read almost 100 pages of I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis. It is another historical fiction book that is written about the same time period as The Agony and the Ecstasy, which I read last semester, but obviously from a different point of view. I really liked I, Mona Lisa--so much so that I finished it after another hour and a half on the flight to Miami. If I would have slept more on the way to Spokane, I probably would have finished it on the way to Spokane. As it was, I spent most of my time trying to sleep and was too tired to read when I wasn't trying to sleep. Oh well! The flight to Miami was only about 1/3 of the way full, which was surprising to me. Luckily for us, there were probably 6 infants and small children on the plane. They took turns crying for probably all but 30 minutes of the six hour flight. I can imagine that flying with a young child would be difficult, but I would think a parent would bring some toys for the poor children. Some of the parents brought absolutely nothing for the little ones to do. No wonder they were crying. At least I know how to read and can amuse myself with novels. What can a three year old do, especially if Mom and Dad don't bring them anything?

We landed about 10:00pm, hopped in a cab and headed back to the apartment. I was glad to be back in one piece. The flight is so long and tiring that it was hard to believe I had eaten breakfast with my parents that morning.

Relaxing for a little while at least...

We finished our school's review for the boards last Wednesday and decided to take a week or so off before starting our study for Step One (the first set of boards). Farley and I having been taking it really easy. We went to Costco with a friend on Thursday and spent THREE HOURS shopping around. I've never spent this much time in Costco...ever! We had lunch, chit-chatted and it was lot of fun. After we got back, we headed to Blockbuster and grabbed a few movies. We watched Elegy which is a bit of an artsy-fartsy movie. Both Farley and I enjoyed it--it discusses art and music, death and love--but to forwarn you: the ending is a bit sad. On Friday, we went to the gym for 45 minutes of a heart pounding cardiovascular workout, showered and headed to our pool. We were going to go to the beach, but it would have just been the two of us and we decided that since the pool is just downstairs that it would be easier to stay at home (besides, the University of Miami starts school on Monday so there are wild and crazy co-eds all over Miami trying to have their last bit of fun before the new semester starts). I finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife, which was a wonderful book. I'm not a huge science fiction reader, and there is a little of science fiction, but it was amazing. I'm amazed at how the author kept the story line straight as you were jumping around in time (each chapter started by saying how old the Time Traveler and his Wife were and they took turns telling the story so you heard the story from two perspectives and sometimes you would hear the same story at different times in the book as the Wife might be 16 when something happens and the Time Traveler might be 36). I can see why some people don't get into the book, as it jumps around a lot, but I really enjoyed it. I was trying to finish it so that Farley and I could go see the movie, but the movie is getting horrible reviews and I think a film adaptation might loose some of the magic of the book. Parts of it were a bit sad, but overall it was a great book. I might even read it again after I take Step 1 because there was so much foreshadowing and I'm sure I missed things the first time around not realizing how important the details would be.

Without having school, I've been tearing through books. Before reading The Time Traveler's Wife, I finished up The Agony and the Ecstasy, which I've been nursing all semester--nursing all 700+ pages! Farley was also reading it--it was our book club read. The first 500 pages or so were complete ecstasy--you felt like you were walking down an Italian street during the Renaissance and I learned so much about art history. However, there was a 50-100 page span where I couldn't wait to be done with the book. I felt like the book picked up again in the end, but not to the same level as the first 500 pages. Nonetheless, it was an amazing book overall and I'd suggest it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. Bear in mind that the author spent about 6 years researching the book so there is a lot more history than the normal historical fiction, but if you read this book you will definitely learn something!

Anyway, after reading by the pool, Farley and I decided to watch Vicky Christina Barcelona, which was also artsy-fartsy. It wasn't my favorite movie, but there were moments that it was great. I've never seen a Woody Allen film before and it had a few interesting moments. I thought it should have been funnier given the set up: two American girls and close friends go to Barcelona for the summer fall and fall in love with the same man--a man whose ex-wife tried to kill him and reappears to complicate things as she is also still in love with this man. Really, it could have been extremely funny and it really wasn't in my opinion. It wasn't bad by any means, but it just wasn't at all what I expected.

To continue our relaxing break, I went to the gym early this morning so Farley and I could hit the pool a bit earlier. We both started reading A Good and Happy Child, which is a debut novel by Justin Evans. It is about a man in his 30s who cannot bring himself to hold his son and his wife demands that he goes to therapy. He begins to remember some horrible things from his childhood, including a murder. It is a psychological thriller and it must have been good because I read all 300+ pages in an afternoon. It was an interesting book and Farley and I have had fun discussing it. I was a little worried about reading it because I have an active imagination and get scared easily, but I wasn't really scared. I just really wanted to know how it was going to end.

After finishing the book, Farley and I watched another movie. This time an older movie, Primal Fear. It is a legal thriller with Edward Norton and Richard Gere. There are tons of twists and turns and the acting was superb. It came out in 1996, so I'm sure many people have seen it and if you haven't I won't say anymore because I don't want to give any of the plot twists away. It was a great movie.

And that is about that. It's been nice to be relaxing and I'm not looking forward to starting the official Step Review, but all of this relaxing makes me feel like I'm not getting enough done. I guess it is the medical student in me--we must always be accomplishing some goal. One of our professors said that anyone who goes to medical school is some sort of masochist: we go hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt, attend classes seven days a week sometimes for 10 hours a day often in rooms without windows, carry an incredible responsibility and burden, and sign up to work nights, weekends and holidays for the rest of our lives. To top it all off, we spend a good 10-15 years getting trained before we start to make any money and by then we have enough student loans that we basically have two house payments. I'm beginning to think he is right: I've been feeling like a I need a break for the last few weeks and now that I finally have a chance to relax for a week or so I have an overwhelming feeling that I should be studying, in a room without a window!

I finished the semester last Friday and promptly came home to nap! I couldn't sleep a wink Thursday night, which is unusual for me. After a good three hour nap, I was back to being semi-human again. Farley's 13-year old brother was in town, so we headed to Farley's grandparent's house for a lovely dinner and to pick up his brother for a weekend of fun. One of Farley's cousins was in town, so I got to meet her (which was very fun). As usual, Farley's grandma made a lovely dinner and we had wonderful conversation. About 11:00 we left his grandparents headed back to South Miami. The boy's decided that we should go "shoot zombies" at GameWorks. I was so tired that I probably looked like a zombie, so we decided to head to the apartment about 12:30 or so. Here is a picture of Sunset mall with GameWorks in the background. Saturday morning, we went down to the pool. This is only the second time Farley and I have been able to go to the beautiful pool that is in our building. It was a beautiful Miami day and we found some seats in the sun (well one of us opted for the shade). We read books for a few hours and hopped in the pool. In true Miami fashion, the pool was almost as warm as a bath tub!

After the pool, we headed to the gym. The air conditioning was out in the gym and it was so unbelievably hot! We managed to solder through our work outs, changed and headed to Target and back to Sunset Mall. We wandered around the mall window shopping for a while, then headed to Barns & Noble to pick up Farley's brother a book. Farley wanted to go to Dan Marino's Fine Food and Spirits so we headed to dinner. Dan Marino's isn't my favorite place to eat, but it was okay (I think the bar is better than the kitchen). After dinner, we needed to head back to GameWorks for another riveting round of "zombie killing." It was really busy so we left fairly quickly, which was probably for the best anyway as we needed to be up early to get across town to Farley's Grandparents house so we would make it to church on time.

Sunday morning, we were all up bright and early to get into our Sunday Bests and headed to Farley's Grandparent's house. We met up with the family and headed down to church. Farley's Grandparents attend an AME, African Methodist Episcopal Church. It was a very warm and inviting church, but definitely different than my upbringing in the Catholic Church. After the service was finished, we headed back to Farley's grandparent's house for brunch. Farley has a lot of cousins in Miami and I was able to meet more of them during this brunch, which was fun. After that, we headed home changed into shorts (much to Farley's dismay as he LOVES to wear ties) and headed to Dadeland Mall. It is a fairly good sized mall near our apartment and we thought it'd be fun for Farley's brother to see somewhere different. After going to the mall, we decided to rent a movie because between Farley and his brother, they had seen just about everything that was in the movie theaters (and NOT rated R that is since Farley's brother is only 13 years old!). The guys decided to rent Push which was better than I anticipated.

Monday, the guys decided to sleep in. At 11:00 I decided to get them up so we could have a big breakfast before heading to South Beach. We finally managed to get there about 1:15. We drove around so Farley's brother could see the art deco architecture. We parked at 16th street and Washington (about two blocks from the beach) then found a clear spot to enjoy the beach at about 15th street. Here are some pictures:

After we finished on the beach, we headed to Rocky's for Italian Ice. It is a famous Italian Ice place and I've been looking forward to going for months. Unfortunately: It was closed for remodeling. So we walked up and down Ocean Avenue for a while searching before going to get smoothies and heading home. Farley took a few pictures while I was driving of downtown Miami.

After the beach, we headed to (guess where) THE GYM! I know, it is always a good time. We were all pretty tired, so we watched Yes Man! which was funnier than I expected! The guys did some laundry and we headed to bed.

Tuesday morning we had to take Farley's brother back to his Grandparent's house before we had our review course for the Step at 3:00pm. We had the course every day for 10 days from 1:00 pm until 9:00pm! But the professor is amazing so it is worth the long crazy hours.

A Change Would Do You Good

I feel like such a whiner this semester, but I'm so tired and ready to be done. Our final exam is on Friday and I've been doing my best to stay focused and review, but it's been surprisingly hard. This semester was no where near as academically challenging as the previous four; however, it was challenging in different ways. Our schedule was constantly changing which made planning study time extremely difficult--we even had emails sent at midnight several times changing things and one email giving us our schedule at 4:00 am! They tried to be very clear about expectations, but within the last week they changed the entire grading scheme. Things that were not even listed on the original grading scheme and syllabus were added (weeks after we submitted them). I'm so grateful that I took a lot of time with the projects that were not listed on the original syllabus, especially given this change. One good thing about all of these changes and about going to an international medical school in general is that one becomes very adapt at rolling with the punches. The Sheryl Crow song, "A Change Would Do You Good," could have been my theme song this semester.

I know I've complained a lot, but it wasn't a horrible semester: I loved working in the clinics and working with patients. If the semester was more organized, it probably would have been the best semester we've had so far. I think part of my whining about the semester was because I had SUCH high expectations for the semester. Obviously, I set myself up for disaster--if I just would have expected a so-so or even a bad semester, the last few months would have surpassed my expectations. I guess perspective is everything!

Our school requires 10 semesters of medical school to earn the MD degree (it adds up to 4 years total--no summers off). As of Friday, I will be 5/10th of the way done!!! Time flies when you are reading huge text books!

Dance Dance Revolution

Farley and I finally went to Game Works and I'm sorry to say that I lost horribly at dance dance revolution. I was just awful. We had a great time playing different games: we killed zombies, played basketball, football and skiball, dance dance revolution, and even virtual bowling. It was more fun than I thought it would be. Farley may have beat me at dance dance revolution, but I beat him at basketball, football and skiball. I was able to get one good picture at Game Works Farley in some video game (below) and one good picture of the two of us before we left for Game Works (above).

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park

Yesterday was a fun day! Farley's dad was in town so we headed to Farley's grandparent's house to see his grandparents, uncle and dad. It was such a nice day. I've been really homesick lately, so to be around his family was wonderful. Farley's dad and uncle wanted to go to one of the beaches from their youth and Farley and I got to tag along and we were off to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. It was so beautiful! I didn't realize that a state park is probably 30 minutes from our apartment with beautiful beaches, a breathtaking light house and many tropical plants. I forgot my camera, so I am posting a few pictures from the Florida State Parks website.

According to the Florida State Park's website, Graham Hitchen too the following picture. This State park so so close to downtown Miami that you can vaguely see Miami in the background.

After going down to the national park, we went back to Farley's grandparents and had a wonderful dinner with his family. Overall, it was a fun and relaxing day!

Fireworks from my balcony

I didn't think I'd get to enjoy the 4th of July, but we could see plenty of fireworks from our apartment. Unlike Washington, in Florida fireworks are legal so there were many amateur pyrotechnicians in the neighborhood. Best of all, we could see one of the professional firework presentations over the treetops to the south of our apartment. I'm not exactly sure where these were coming from, but they were extremely high and well planned so I'm sure it was one of the other suburbs of Miami holding a show for their residents. Here are some of my pictures from last night. Obviously, some turned out better than others.This last picture was from one of the amateur pyrotechnicians in the neighborhood. I probably moved the camera, which is why it looks a little crazy, but I like it nonetheless.

Happy Independence Day!

Two years ago today, my mom left me in Miami to start my medical career. When I woke up today, it hit me: two years ago my dream was to become a physician and now I'm in the beginning of my third year of medical school. I've lived abroad, visited multiple countries (ten if you count all the international airports), taken more exams than I care to remember, met some wonderful people (there is one extra wonderful person...Farley!!) and I'm well on my way to becoming physician. In fact, this week Farley and I were part of a group of students asked to speak to students doing the semester in Miami before heading down to the island. It is crazy to think that just two years ago I was at such a different place in my life. Just like then, I'm still excited, nervous and even a little scared about the future, but after living through Dominica nothing is quite as scary anymore.

I don't think we will get to do anything exciting for Independence Day. They are having fireworks on Miami Beach, but I don't know how much fun it would be to drive down there, find parking and get out. I think I'd be better off staying at home. There are suppose to be fireworks about a mile from here, so maybe we'll go to the top of our parking garage and try to watch from there. Since we are in Miami, obviously there are rain showers and thunderstorms currently so I don't think it would be very fun to be out at all today.

I haven't posted a picture in a while. It isn't the best picture of me (but Farley looks great, as usual). This picture was taken before heading to a clinic to see patients last week:

Affectionally known as "Puffy" the rental car...

Note: I started this blog post on June 17th, but hadn't had enough time to complete it until today--it's a long [post!



We rented a car while we are in Florida and it is a Dodge Caliver. I've never been a huge Dodge fan and honestly I'm a loyal Subaru driver through and through, but I can't justify the cost of shipping Zoey the super Subaru to Miami for just 4-6 months. The Dodge is doing okay; however, we have nicked named the car "puffy" it sounds like it has COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) when we are driving. I hadn't driven since before I left for Dominica in January of 2008, so driving Puffy in crazy Miami traffic has been a bit nerve wracking, but I'm back into the swing of things despite some of the worst and most rude drivers in the nation. The Miami area just lost their reining title of the most rude drivers in the nation, which they held for the last four years, to NYC so I think the Miami residents are trying to increase their rudeness to regain their title in 2010.


The most interesting thing about Puffy is that it has a crazy base in the sound system. Obviously it is the factory radio, but even at low volume, it shakes the rear-view mirror! The problem with turning off the radio is that then we have to listen to Puffy try to push itself forward.


We are doing our clinical rotation at a federally funded network of health clinics. Last Sunday (14th) after class we drove out to the main clinic to see where we would have to be for orientation. While zooming down the express way, I noticed the SUV in front of me driving rather strangely. Then I saw the driver of this SUV yelling at the van (towing a boat) int he center lane. All of the sudden the brakes lights emerged and the driver of the SUV swerved toward the van. The SUV driver then reached across to the van, while still maintaining a speed of over 60 miles per hour, and handed the passenger of the van...a 12 pack of either toilet paper or paper towels. Only in Miami.



So Monday, the 13th, we left for the orientation far too early and had about an hour to study for our upcoming exam. I knew that we were doing the reverse commute, but in light our our first clinical experience neither Farley nor I wanted to risk being late. We left over an hour and a half early for a twenty minute drive and it only took twenty minutes. We had a lovely orientation that only took until about 11:30 (I was bracing myself for an all day event) and an old-school physician gave us some sound advice about medicine before handing all of us his card and saying we could call anytime with a question about anything. He said he'd be glad to advise us if we ever needed it or even just to listen if we are overwhelmed with the job and responsibilities. There are not many people who would offer up their time to a group of strangers--we met a very special man that day.

After the orientation was finished, we headed further south to Homestead to find the clinic. We had our handy directions and we followed them to a tee. There was just one problem: we ended up in a residential area that opened up into the middle of a field and the road ending. So we drove around thinking that and we just passed the clinic, then looked with the GPS on my cell phone, which gave us the same directions. Finally, we called the clinic which was closed on Monday so we ended up talking to someone at the place our orientation (main clinic for the group of community clinics). We were told we had to pass 123rd street. Well, we were at the wrong end of town so we drove until we were at the other end of the road (yes, we went from one dead end to another) and we finally found the clinic. I think Southern Florida was designed by a crazy five year old sometimes; for example, the clinic was located on 312 SW Street also known as NE 8th Street or Campbell Street. To make matters worse, the address that we were given from school was missing a zero, which was how we ended up at the other end of town. After we finally found the clinic, we grabbed a late lunch in Homestead then drove home.

Tuesday, we left bight and early to get to the clinic in Homestead. It took about 40 minutes or so to get home on Monday, so we decided to leave an hour and a half early Tuesday to make sure we were on time. Despite taking the reverse commute (from Miami down south to Homestead), we felt it was necessary to leave extra early because you never know in this town what is going to happen with this town's traffic. We took W. Snapper Creek Road (Farley and I like to call it Whipper Snapper Creek road, but I think it is probably West Snapper Creek Road) and merged onto the turnpike. We went about a mile before we saw the cars starting to back up on the turnpike. I thought that we might be coming up to one of the poll booths, but we couldn't see one. Rather, they were making all traffic move off the turnpike, which was resulting in the backup. This was all occurring near a construction site, so I was extremely frustrated that they didn't have signs up on Monday because we would have planned an alternative route had we known they were scheduled to shut down the turnpike. However, this was not a planned closure of the turn pike.

We followed traffic off the turnpike then followed the closest, main road that was near the turn pike. It was moving as fast a molasses. I'm not 100% sure where we got off, I think we were in Kendall, which anyone familiar with Miami could tell you is the next "town" away from South Miami (thus we didn't make it very far). We tried to get back on the turn pike twice, but all of the entrances were blocked by police officer and cars. Thankfully, we had my cell phone with GPS. The phone figured out where we were and Farley used the map to guide us to Homestead. For those of you not familiar with Florida, Homestead is about halfway from Miami to the Florida Keys so we had a long ways to go since in Kendall we were still in the greater Miami area. As we were zigzagging though Florida trying to call the school or the physician's office, we saw beautiful farmlands and a whole different side of Florida. It was so green and I think the drive would have been much more enjoyable if it hadn't taken about two and a half hours to make a forty minute drive. We finally arrived at the clinic. I was extremely nervous because it was our first day with this physician and we were over forty minutes late! Thankfully, she had heard that the turnpike was closed while getting ready for work and expected us to be late since we were coming from Miami. Apparently, a 23 year old police officer died in a dump truck accident on the turnpike in the early morning hours. It wasn't clear exactly what happened so they closed an extra large stretch of the turnpike to do a thorough investigation of the fatal accident.

After Doctor told us her expectations (go interview the patient, do a physical, and report back to me), we were sent into see our first patient. Thank goodness Farley speaks some Spanish because my two weeks of medical Spanish wouldn't have cut it in this clinic. If he hadn't spoke Spanish, we would have just shadowed Doctor for the two weeks (except when there were English speaking patients). In fact, we were really luckily that Doctor let us do so much. Many of our colleges have just been observing the physicians, which is still a learning opportunity, but being able to participate is even better. In the afternoon, we even figured out that a patient we were interviewing was bulimic, which was an interesting find during our first day in the trenches. We had a nice lunch break then left for home after 6:00pm. Because of our schedule, we didn't make it to the board review course that night, but I would have been to tired anyway.

Wednesday the 17th, we had a full day of lectures in downtown Miami. I've never been so happy to ride the train! We had some great lectures and my least favorite professor also spoke that day. In case anyone has forgotten, I really don't like neuroscience. I think taking neuroscience was worse than taking Latin in high school. Neuroscience is like a language that I'm not quite fluent in. It is just an area that has never been a big interest to me. Now don't get me wrong, there are some really cool things in neuroscience and I have enjoyed some of the lectures. However, when I think about all of the spinal tracts and where they cross or trying to figure out where a brain lesion is based on symptoms, it makes me feel like I'm also going to have an aneurysm. Anyway, we had a professor come down from Yale to lecture on neuroradiology. Given my distaste for neuroscience, I wasn't exactly excited for this lecture: I was wrong. He was wonderful! I know he is a radiologist that specializes in neuroimagning, but I wish he could just teach all of neuroscience. He was so much fun and he made the 2D images jump out as if they were in 3D. It was great! We also had a lecture on endocrinology, which was wonderful as usual (the professor is really easy to learn from). After our full day in Downtown Miami, we headed back to South Miami, grabbed a bite to eat, then headed to Medical Spanish.

Thursday the 18th, we were back in Homestead with Doctor. Thankfully, no one died on the turnpike and we arrived early. We had an interesting day and there was an extremely interesting patient that I interviewed. She had a wide array of symptoms and I think that there is really something wrong with her, but I can't put my finger on exactly what. I'm sure I took way too long interviewing her because I was trying to put her sequel of symptoms together, but alas, I'm just a medical student and she was being referred to a specialist to get to the bottom of her problems. I think she might have had a problem with her pituitary, but it wasn't a clean cut case so I'm not 100% convinced that her pituitary is the answer to her problems. Thursday, I remembered to take my Medical Spanish book, so I was able to help Farley interview patients in Spanish--he interviewed and I looked up words as needed. We actually got out of clinic early and headed home to study for our exam on June 26th.

On Friday the 19th, Doctor was on vacation so we were working with two nurse practitioners. They looked very young to me and I think they must have been right out of school. We did the same sorts of things with the nurse practitioners: we interviewed, performed physical exams, and reported our findings to the nurse practitioners. The reason I'm pretty sure they were fairly fresh out of school is because they were carrying along books with them (like us) and they took as long if not longer with patients than we did. As a general rule with medical students (and I assume all medical professional) we take a long time to do things because we want to make sure we remember to do everything, to ask every question and to not miss anything. It wasn't as exciting of a day, but we only got to stay until noon because we had class in the afternoon and then our Friday evening board review course.

We returned down to Homestead on Saturday for another day of clinical fun. Doctor was again off, but that day we were reporting to a Physician's Assistant (PA). This PA was great and we learned so much from her. She spoke less Spanish than Farley but more Spanish than me, so I think we were a help to her because it was easier for Farley to speak to some of the patient than it was for her. She actually let us see a couple patients, asked us questions, made us return to the patient to ask some follow up questions, then sent them on their way without seeing them herself. Granted, it was only one or two patients that had follow up appointments with Doctor in the next week or two, but it was still exciting to be impressing the PA enough that she was comfortable sending the patients on their way. If she thought we were idiots, she would have seen the patients herself. We got to help decide on therapy to give to a patient with hypertension (we chose a calcium channel blocker) and we discovered that a little girl with a cold actually had a bacterial infection rather than a viral infection so she needed antibiotics. The PA gave us lots of great tips on counseling patients and talking to them about their health. We really learned a lot from her. After finishing up at noon, we headed back home to study for the exam.

On Sunday the 21st, we had a full 8 hours of board review. One of our professors from the island returned to teach--it was so nice to see him again. There is a physician on staff as faculty in Miami that is the same speciality as the professor from Dominica. The difference between these professors is amazing. It is obvious that the professor from Dominica really cares about his patients and the struggles of the families trying to care for an ill family member. The professor from Miami tends to mock his patients to get a laugh out of students while he is teaching, which really upsets me. It was great to have our Dominica professor back who really tries to show compassion and empathy to his patients.

Monday the 22nd, we didn't have to go to clinic but we did have to attend a small group lecture with the same professor from Dominica. We also had Medical Spanish and had to study for the upcoming exam on Friday.

Tuesday, we were back in Homestead. By this point, I think we were finally starting to be helpful to Doctor. In just one week we were starting to get faster at our interviews, ask better questions, quicker physical exams, and I think Farley was starting to get more comfortable with interviewing patients in Spanish. It was starting to get fun. We better knew what to look for and we knew what question Doctor wanted us to ask. For example, if a patient is over age 50, has he/she had a colonoscopy? If the patient is female, ask about her periods and if she is over 40 has she had a mammogram. Those are just little obvious things, but when you have a million things popping into your head and you are trying to make sense of everything, it is easy to forget the obvious. Because of our exam on Friday, we didn't have to go to board review class on Tuesday night!!

Wednesday as usual we had our lectures in Downtown Miami. I was feeling pretty down about the semester by Wednesday and really wasn't in the mood to sit for eight hours in a lecture hall. This semester is extremely disorganized and it is very frustrating. I really anticipated it to be the best semester we've had since we get to see patients, but in all honesty, seeing patients in the only good this this semester has had to offer. The rest has been in such a disarray that even the good lectures that we've had, and we have had some, get lost in the unnecessary mess of the semester. I just want to do my time, pass my exams, and get out of this semester. I'm not the first to complain about this semester, apparently most students are very frustrated with the organization and set up of this semester and many students say this was their least favorite semester. I didn't know that until this week--all this time, I thought it was just me. Anyway, we had a lecture on Hematology Wednesday that couldn't have come at a better time for me. I decided to go to medical school with the intention of become a hematologist and oncologist. The Hematologist that spoke to us was so engaging and I just loved the lecture on bleeding disorders. When I worked in pediatric hematology and oncology clinical research, I didn't really like the hematology aspect, but I didn't know as much about it as I did about the oncology part. The more I learn about hematology, the more I like it. I don't know if I like it more than oncology, but I think hematology is enthralling. The rest of the lectures were so-so, nothing too exciting but noting too boring either. After class, we had Medical Spanish.

Thursday, we headed back down to Homestead for another day with Doctor. We had a rather uneventful morning. The last patient we saw before lunch was rather interesting. Farley and I spent our drive to the bank and than to lunch debating whether the patient had a drinking problem (I think the patient did). Farley needed to stop by Bank of America and since we had a longer than normal lunch, we decided to go during lunch. When we arrived, I was going to stay in the car, reading notes until he was finished. Farley insisted that I come inside with him in case the banking took a while and he "had a feeling" that I should just come inside with him. While he was working with the banker, I noticed a young woman come into the bank with a small child (1.5-2 years old). The little boy was a cutie and caught my eye, than I returned to my readings. About two minutes later, I heard "do you feel like you are going to faint?!??" and saw the customer next to you the young lady put the child on the floor and help the young lady to the nearest chair. A worker picked up the child and brought him to his mom, then started asking her questions. At that point, I decided to head over. Farley likes to say I "swooped in", but in reality, I just walked over and said, "I'm a third year medical student. Can I help?" At this point, everyone said yes and moved out of the way. She was breathing, but her breaths were in the normal range, she was maintaining a normal level of consciousness, but her hands were contracting and she was loosing feeling in her arms and legs. I couldn't really feel her pulse well because her hands were in such a tight contracture. One banker called her mom and another called 911. Right before all of this happened, Farley had been taken to the back to get his picture taken for a new debit card and when I saw him return I waved him over. At first I thought that she might be getting ready to have a grand mal seizure, so I was trying to get as much information out of her as possible in case she lost consciousness. By the time Farley came over, her hand wasn't contracting as tightly and he was able to get a pulse, which was on the upper limits of normal but not tachycardic. She had extreme abdominal pain and I thought she might have an appendix about to burst, but come to find out she was about 6 weeks pregnant. Obviously, my next thought was an ectopic pregnancy, but she didn't have the risk factors and when we got a better description of the pain it didn't really match ectopic pregnancy pain. Farley asked if this had happened before and it had when she was pregnant the first time. We talked to her for so long, I probably could have written her up for one of my patient notes! I have no idea why the ambulance took so long especially in this medium sized town. The hospital was only 3-5 minutes away and I'm not sure where the ambulance company is located, but it took them WAY too long to get there. I'm not sure if they were slower because her vital signs were stable, but I wasn't impressed with their speed at all. In fact, Farley and I pretty much figured out what was probably wrong with her (in the back of my mind I already had a list of tests I would order if I was the MD in the ED that day). Farley and I tried to report what happened to one of the three paramedics, but in all honesty without disrespect, I don't think he knew what we were talking about. We have a lot of clinical knowledge, we don't have anywhere near the experience of these paramedics, but we know a lot and we have detailed medical vocabularies. Some of our everyday medical words, would not be known (or even necessary) or a parametic. The parametic's job is to stabilize the patient and transport the patient to the hospital: not analyze why the patient is ill. Don't get me wrong, they do some analysis of patients: "Was antifreeze next to a patient who passed out?", or "Is this patient taking "the little blue pill" and in the middle of a heart attack?". But the primary job is not to analyze, it is to stabilize the patient and get the patient to the hospital as soon as possible. I think that our patient in the bank was having complications from her morning sickness, not eating or sleeping much in a week, anemia and fear--her boyfriend of three years just dumped her, she is now pregnant with his second son and she talked about being scared to support two children on her own. I'm pretty sure there was nothing serious wrong with her medically and that she will be okay, but young woman was understandable overwhelmed. I don't even remember her name, but she has been in my thoughts and prayers.

After all of that excitement, we headed for a quick lunch then back to the clinic. Farley has been teasing me about being so excited, but I got to perform my first pap smear on Thursday. It was very exciting! I've always been most interesting in (1) hematology/oncology; (2) pediatrics and (3) Ob/Gyn so to have the opporunity to perform a pap smear in my second week of clinicals was exciting. I've got to admit, I was very scared because I didn't want to hurt the patient. Putting in the speculum wasn't as easy as I thought it would be and after scraping all over the cervix and into the external oz, which is the canal from the vagina to the uterus, I could understand exactly why pap smears are so darn uncomfortable. While I was learning about women's health, Farley was having his own great learning experience in Cardiology. He was interviewing a patient who had had several heart attacks and had even had quadrupal bypass surgery. Farley got to listen to abnormal heart sounds on a real patient rather than just on a simulator machine. He asked if ordering an EKG would be appropriate since this patient was new to Doctor, and she agreeded. It was the most crazy EKG, I've ever seen and it was good practice to analyze it. Obviously, Farley's patient is headed back to the Cardiologist.

On Friday, we had our dreaded exam. I didn't feel like I had enough time to study for it because we've been running all over the greater Dade county. There were 70 multiple choice questions and two essay question (we were told there would be one, so I was suprised there were two). I think the 70 multiple choice questions went okay and the second essay was fine, but I'm not so sure about the first one. The essay were cases that were given over several pages with about 10 or so short answer questions for each case. The first essay was okay until the last three questions. Every possible diagnosis I could think of had been proven incorrect by labs and physical exam in the case. Anyway, I'm sure it went fine, especially since I haven't talked to anyone who was very certain about the first essay quesiton.

After the exam, we headed to school to look at previously well graded SOAP notes (a soap note is a short medical note). Somehow, two hours after the exam had finished, the clerical staff had not returned and according to the secretary they usually don't return at all after the exams. This really irratted me as they didn't have to take an exam and they are notoriously difficult to get in contact with when we have questions. It is just another reason why this semester is so frustrating. They could have at least left the SOAP notes with the secretary so we could have done some work. Since that turned out to be a bust, I decided to take a well needed nap before heading to the gym. After the gym, Farley and I went to the grocery store and then had a late dinner while watching the Bachelorette online. Boy, do we have opinions about who she is picking!

Saturday, we headed back to Homestead for the last day of our rotation with Doctor. I had a lot more fun with Family Practice Medicine than I expected. We had such a great rotation with Doctor and learned so much from her. We needed to find a patient to write another paper on and Farley was able to do a great interview on a pediatric patient--in Spanish-- and I had enough time to do a throughal physical so we can start writing the paper. I even got to do a second pap smear and this time I got to do the pelvic exam too. The pelvic exam was difficult because the patient was overweight. Part of the exam is moving the cervix around with your fingers in the vagina so your hand that is on top of the pelvis (between your hips on your low abdomen) can push down and the doctor can feel the size of the uterus, feel for any lumps and try to capture the ovaries or see if any pain is illucited with trying to capture the ovaries. I really couldn't fell anything other than her cervix becuase she was pretty overweight and I didn't want to push to hard and cause her pain. I'm still greatful for the experience though.

After we finished our last day with Doctor, we ran into Target on our way home. We moised around a bit and window shopped. One of my favorite things do to is to take relaxing bubble baths and read a novel (or even notes). Adult bubble bath can be rather expensive, so I had this brillant idea just to buy the baby bubble bath! I think the Johnson and Johnson Bedtime Bath (for babies) works even better than the expensive adult bubble bath and it smells so good! I liked it so much that I decided to buy the matching baby loation and oil. I can't believe how soft my skin is and it wasn't that expensive.

Farley and I have been wanting to try the boxed wine at Target for a long time. We were curious about the taste and since it was one sale, we bought the smallest container--with four juice box sized wines. After heading to the gym, we had dinner than walked over to Sunset Place to watch a movie: The Proposal. The critics didn't like it much, but Farley and thought it was really funny; perhaps it was the glass of boxed wine we each had during the movie? I don't know. After the movie was out, we walked around the mall and headed into the bookstore for some window shopping. It is so much fun to live so close to Sunset place because we can just stroll over and we don't have to worry about parking and we can both enjoy a glass of wine because we don't have to drive!

We headed in fairly early on Saturday night because we had class on Sunday morning at 9:00am. We covered renal and skin pathology in our board review course. Luckily, we only had class for about four hours. I wanted to head to Bath and Body Works to get a candle since there was a sale going on so we drove down to Dadeland Mall. We have been wanting to go to the pool and read novels but it always rains the days that we actually have enough time to go read for a while. Thus, we window shopped at the mall before heading back to the apartment. This was our 15th day in a row of classes and I needed a nap. I slept for about 2 or 3 hours before awaking to realize that it was already 6:15 and I hadn't started my beef stew yet! We decided to go ahead and make the stew so we ate a late, but really wonderful dinner.

Today was the first day in a long time that we didn't have to be up and going by 6:30 or 7:00, nonetheless, I was up by 7:00. We were suppose to have two things to do at school today, but one of them is moved to tomorrow so we only have our Medical Spanish today. I guess you could say we kinda have today off, but I really don't consider it a day off since we have to get dressed up and head to class, even if it is just Medical Spanish. It is an obligation and we are required to attend. We also have class tomorrow and Wednesday (as well as night classes), but then we have four days off in a row. Completely off!! Now, I know we will still end up studying, but we don't actually have to be anywhere for school. Farley and I haven't had more than one day off in a row since starting the semester so I'm super excited to have a little down time, even though we still have studying to do.

I think that is enough for one post. I'll be impressed if anyone reads this whole thing...it's really long!