Break, Indeed

I've been off school for about a week now, and it's been amazing. I've been a model(?) of sloth for said week, and it's been legitimately re-energizing. I really think the timing of this break was spot on. If we would've had to go another two weeks or so, I may have come close to burnout. Towards the end of the semester (especially after Thanksgiving) I just didn't care as much, and my grades definitely reflect that. Ah well though, at least there's only three more semesters of hardcore books and some board exams before I really get out to the hospital. Hopefully the grass is greener over there.

Until then, I think I'll be better prepared to finish out semesters. Then again, word on the street is next semester's finals week is supposed to be kinda brutal. Even more so since this semester's wasn't actually too bad, and I still struggled. That's neither here nor now though. Don't mean to throw a pity party, but just trying to give an idea of how much I'm enjoying this break - even if there are no real highlights to it.

The only real flurry of "activity" came directly after finals. One of the first things I did after my last final was have a few beers in lieu of our usual brunch at Sweet Maple Cafe. Different from our normal post-exam routine, but still nice nonetheless. Watched some Man vs. Wild up close on a friend's DLP, and then picked up the parents from Union Station. Why were the parents in town? Mostly because I paid the United Center a second visit in as many months. This time the occasion was Bulls vs. Knicks. The Bulls won, which is always a nice (if not rare) plus. It was against the Knicks though... But the seats were pretty amazing - lower level, a few rows behind the floor seats. IMO, pretty much the same view as the floor seats, but cheaper. Of course, "cheaper" is a relative term when you start getting that close to the court.

Aside from all that, it's been hanging out around home, catching up with friends, getting some Halo 3/Guitar Hero 3 time in, watching movies I've wanted to for the past few months, and a lot of sleeping. I could definitely get used to this again. :) I'm sure this'll all end a lot faster than I want it to. I suppose all good things...

In the meantime - Merry Christmas kids!

A Day in the Life (Picture Version)

A disclaimer since this post has been brewing for awhile. As of approximately 20 minutes ago, this "a day in the life" is no longer valid. Why? Because this M1 is done for the semester!!!

This edition of "a day in the life" is going to be mostly pictures. The snow got me in a picture taking mood last week.

Destination: UIC-COM

View from my roof. The tower way in the background amongst the snow is where I'm trying to get to. Hooray for UIC.

Home Sweet Home

The taller building to the left of the light post/parking sign is my building. I'll be seeing it later in the day. Much later.

Side Street

Yay for one of my side streets! All the residential roads take a back seat to clearing out the arterial roads. Clearly, they're still being worked on.

Polk and Ashland

Here's one of those main roads I was talking about. Anyway, I'm coming up on the Illinois Medical District. The tall building in the background is UIC's Clinical Sciences North and is the tower that I mentioned from the roof of my building. It's about a block east of the College of Medicine. The tan/white bridge structure over the road in the background is the Polk L stop - one of two ways I get to downtown.

Polk and Wood Streets

Clinical Sciences North is on the left of the pic. The COM includes the tower in the background. Cook County Hospital is the building in the right background, about a block away. This area's also where this M1 partook in a snowball ambush by nightfall. Hey - we need study breaks too.

Heading Downtown

This is from a bridge a few blocks from my place. So there's the Eisenhower Expressway down below. In the median runs the Blue Line and the other of the two L stations I hop on for downtown. Unfortunately, I'm usually heading downtown to study.

Ramping

If you look at the last pic, you'll see that there are two ramps heading down to the L platform. Aforementioned ramp.

Jackson/Dearborn Station

Here's the subway stop I get off at when I'm heading to Depaul. It leaves me about two blocks away from their campus. Jackson is definitely one of the nicer and newer stations in Chicago's subways.

Dearborn Street

Dearborn Street looking north. Here's one of the exits from the Jackson station. I think that the Red Line's and Jackson's subway entrances look pretty nice - definitely cleaner and more modern than some of the other ones.

Jackson and State Streets

The building behind Walgreens and above the Barnes and Noble is Depaul's Loop campus. If I'm not around the UIC area, there's a good chance you can find me around this part of town. The Garrett's popcorn shop on the left has some pretty good popcorn for sale - if you like caramel or cheese popcorn.

Adams and Wabash

The bridges over the street in the background are the Adams/Wabash L station. If I'm heading directly to or from UIC, this is the L station I hop on to/off from. The Pink Line then leaves me about two blocks from the COM building and right across the street from our library.

Eisenhower/Loop, Night Version

This is usually the scene if I'm heading home from downtown. Unfortunately, I'm heading to my study group.

So that's a typical day for me in terms of moving about. No pics of classrooms or libraries, because I'd feel kinda weird busting out a camera for those. I said earlier that I was in a picture taking mood last week, and as such I ended up snapping a few pictures.

~Roosevelt and Michigan

Looking north across Grant Park.

From Adler Planetarium

From Shedd Aquarium

Let It Snow!

So, today was the year's first real snow. Although, we did have an ice storm last weekend. (Hint: 1/2 inch of ice is not fun to scrape off a car.) Back to the snow though. I think it looks pretty good around the city. Then again, I'm not having to drive or shovel through any of it. (Yay for the L and apartment living!) Anyway, as a study break, I snapped a few pics.

The Park Next to My Apartment

I haven't really used this park all that much. Although, it's nice to have the option.

Depaul Loop Campus
(State/Jackson)
One of my homes away from home. I like studying up in their library because there's no homeless (Chicago public library) and there's a bunch of food options around (unlike UIC's library). I might be mentioning this place as part of a future post.

Wrigley Building
The clock reminds me of the one from city hall in Back to the Future. I don't think Chicago would be cool with "weather experiments" on this particular one.

On the State Street Bridge

I've always thought the bridges over the river looked cool. Can't really see that in the darkness though. Aforementioned Wrigley Building in the background, Trump Tower being built in the left foreground.

Magnificent Mile
(~Grand/Michigan)

I like how Chicago dresses up downtown for Christmas. All the trees are lit up and quite a few skyscrapers even have red/green lights up top.

Master Plan

A quick random note: Thanksgiving break was amazing...did nothing but sleep, eat, and drink. Very much needed, most definitely enjoyed. Aaand now the slap in the face that is med school welcomes me back this week. Ah well.

A little over a week after our anatomy exams, I'm left feeling 1.) still a bit violated 2.) amazed at the body. I'm choosing to focus on the latter.

As part of anatomy, we cover some embryology. In doing so, we learn about how some of the major organ systems develop. And in taking a step back, it's actually kind of amazing how things happen. The four chambered heart that we know and love starts out as a tube. And through some magical signaling, the heart decides to fold a few different ways, along with different partitions appearing out of nowhere. And then you have yourself a heart. The development of the respiratory system is not as complex, but is linked to a bud from the esophagus. The entire respiratory system. From a bud off the esophagus. The lovable domed muscle that is the diaphragm has four different structural embryological origins that converge to form it. The abdominal contents all develop with a certain initial embryological relationship. Throughout fetal development, the intestines, mesenteries, and viscera are rotated and shifted - leading to landmark structures and spaces that persist in adults. I guess the main thing that I'm getting at is it's pretty amazing how things can change so much from fetus to adult.

Even more awesome is how all this development and rearrangement occurs without a hitch most of the time. The first thing that comes to mind is the heart. There are in an insane number of ways that heart development could mess up. There are the more "common" defects including specific ventricular and atrial septal defects, along with patent ductus arteriosus. There are a lot of stages where kidney and urogenital development can go wrong as well. Similar stories are true for the other organ systems as well.

Another thing that amazes me (in hindsight) is the complexity of the autonomic nervous system. Seriously, working through how different areas/organs are innervated and interact was a task. The way nerves off the spinal cord rearrange into sympathetic chains and then proceed to recombine with other sympathetics, parasympathetics, and/or somatics...still not sure if I fully understand it all. And the nerve plexuses. (I maintain the plural should be plexi, but that's my own battle). I don't appreciate anterior rami nerves' need to branch apart and rearrange into different distinct nerves. *ahem - brachial, lumbar, and sacral plexi* And naturally, the abdominal autonomic system felt the need to follow a similar path...celiac, inferior mesenteric, superior/inferior hypogastric plexi.

I suppose what I'm getting at with all this is I'm amazed at the human body. Science intrigue from a med student?? Shocking, I know. But seriously. The more I learn about medicine, especially anatomy and physiology, the more I wonder...damn, evolution (powers that be/intelligent design) is a smart cookie.

The Time Between

So, I'm in med school. In Chicago. I'm a bit biased, but I think it's a pretty sweet town. Sadly, I haven't had as much opportunity to check out the city as I'd like to. Here are the few places that I actually have been to over the past month or so.

Harold's Chicken Shack
A fast food type place to get some fried chicken. The chain apparently originated from the south side, and has slowly been working its way north. It's definitely a different tasting type of fried chicken, compared to KFC and Popeye's. I can't really describe how it's different other than it's different in a good way. Apparently the thing to do is take some fried chicken and fries, both smothered with their sauce, and make a sandwich out of everything (they give you two slices of bread). I, however, was not that ambitious.

Captain Hook's Fish and Chicken
This may or may not be a Chicagoland chain. Either way, I hadn't heard of it until a few weeks ago. Anyway, think Long John Silver's for this restaurant. Except for a few differences. A lot more food options, more food per portion in general, and better food. As a fan of catfish and shrimp, this place has got both of those down pretty well. And any place that does those two well earns themselves a return customer.

Bob San
A pretty nice sushi place. And I mean that both in terms of the food and the actual restaurant. Seems like the restaurant was a pretty happening place, with a decent number of near-formals in the restaurant. The food - the rolls are actually decently sized...but will cost a bit. An overall nice vibe to the place with good sushi to boot. Only thing that sucks is finding parking...we ended up having to grab valet.

Tango Sur
An Argentinian place with some really, really good filet mignon. Sure it's one of the more expensive cuts, but I've heard it's the signature dish to get. No disappointment there. The mashed potatoes were only okay though. Spinach mashed potatoes sounds kinda cool, but I didn't really taste spinach as much as I tasted weirdness. Oo, if you're going to get an appetizer, grab the shrimp "something whose name I can't remember" one. Only a few shrimp, but the sauce is really good for bread dipping. If the food doesn't do it for you, the place is BYOB. Luckily, I wasn't in charge of the acquiring the wine...mostly since I probably don't know/appreciate wine as much as the average person.

Portillo's
If you're ever down for some good hot dogs, this is the place. Not having had a chili cheese dog in a while, I was a big fan of their offering. And when you're getting fries, get the cheese sauce. I've heard they've got pretty good burgers, ribs, and whatnot as well. If you're not in the mood for that, the downtown one shares space with an Italian place and an alcohol stand. The cool (?) thing about the place is when you get your number called. The lady calling out your number comes up with some sort of rhyme for whatever number you are. E.g. "Seventy-eight....looking great!" Sounds kinda lame, but it's more entertaining in person while waiting on your food.

United Center
Yeah, most people know of this place. However, I mention it because I knocked out two "first-time" birds with one stone. One, I made my first visit to the United Center. And two, I saw my first pro hockey game there - Hawks vs. Blues. It was actually really fun. And in the interests of furthering anecdotal evidence - a lot more fun than watching a game on TV. I think part of it has to do with being able to see everything. Part of it is also due to the atmosphere. Having said that though, the place was probably only 1/2 full. Kinda surprising, considering it's Chicago and it was a Friday night.

A note about the United Center - it's a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Still, most of the seats seem to offer a pretty good view of the ice. I was at center ice in the 2nd row of the third tier of seating. I didn't feel like I was too far from the action at all. About the game - it was pretty entertaining (as a casual fan). A surprising number of blue line slapshots actually scored. And the Blues had a tie game after being down something like 3-10 in shots on goal.

And the one weird moment was getting "carded." Yes for alcohol, but that's expected. I walked through the entrance gates and saw that hats were being handed out. As I extend my hand in anticipation, I get asked how old I am. After a puzzled look on my face, "22" was my response. Apparently that's the password for hat receiving. As I look at my new Hawks hat, I see a Bud Light logo emblazoned on the back. Sweet. I just "carded" for a hat. I thought it was pretty funny actually. Your mileage may vary.

Sooo, that's a little bit of what I've been up to outside the realm of med school. Not a whole lot and nothing too special, but it's still nice to have new and random stuff like this every now and then. Just wish it happened more often.

Time Flies...

So, I'm 2+ months into med school. And time really has flown. Having said that, I am *so* looking forward to Thanksgiving. (Minus the semester's only massive anatomy exams right before Thanksgiving. Seriously. Anatomy scares me shitless - I go through underwear faster when I think about that exam day. But that's neither here nor now.) Looking back on the first week of class (and especially orientation week), I miss it. It really wasn't so bad - compared to what's going on now. We've somewhat gotten used to the pace, and even during one of the semester's harder weeks, it doesn't seem so bad. Some people I know might even refer to it as a "hell week." But, I'm not said person. It's bound to happen and comes with the territory - physio (cardiovascular & respiratory), biochem/nutrition, and histo exams within an eight day period. The only real response to this week of exams has been group-coordinated grunting and disappearances into libraries for extended periods of time. The only thing that truly sucks is averaging 4-5 hours of sleep over the past two weeks. And I like my sleep. But meh - there are worse things in life. At least I got to work in a free clinic last Saturday. That's always nice. And this round of exams ends on Monday. :D

A few of the somewhat memorable things that easily come to mind from studying.

Biochem
The liver is amazing. Glucose regulation and homeostasis. The interplay between fatty acids and proteins, and their ability to contribute to body glucose. Glucose aside, don't forget about detoxification, lipid absorption/metabolism, serum proteins and whatnot. At one point I could go into ridiculous detail about most of these things. Not so much anymore.

Nutrition/Biochem
A lot of the pathways we learned earlier in the semester use enzymes. Obvious? Yes. Not so obvious, a lot of these enzymes have cofactors that are either minerals or are derived from vitamins. Kinda interesting to see how different deficiencies/excesses affect the body and/or biochemical pathways. Operative word: kinda. Iron, copper, B12, folate - they're kind of a big deal. Apparently so's a lot of other stuff though.

Physio
Evolution/greater powers are pretty smart cookies. The different mechanisms by which the heart maintains blood flow and blood pressure are damn impressive when you think about it. The different ways that variables are sensed - oxygen, carbon dioxide, pH, blood flow, muscle activity is pretty cool. Then there's the multitude of pathways by which CV homeostasis is maintained - heart contractility, heart rate, vaso/venoconstriction/dilation - with these changes affected through both independent and interacting mechanisms. Respiratory has a similar story. Again, the way variables are perceived and change is affected - pretty amazing. Even learning about respiratory muscle usage and recruitment, as a function of breathing needs, volume, and pathology, is kinda cool.

Anatomy
There are a lot of blood vessels supplying a lot of stuff. And someone felt the need to name everyone one of them. Same story with nerves, veins, and lymphatics. Our dissection table has come the conclusion that we're all going to name a structure, anatomical landmark, or tool after ourselves. "Illinaisa's point. Pain to palpation is indicative of possible appendicitis. Differentials may include bowel obstruction." I like the sound of it. Anyway, lab is pretty much where all the highlights have been. Mostly because I can't remember specifics of the stuff I've read. The liver (at least on our cadaver) is a surprisingly massive organ. The greater omentum is a 4-layered sheet of fat coming off the stomach that covers most of the intestines. Kinda freaky, IMO. It reminds me of a stage curtain. The small intestine is really, reeaaally long. The kidneys are surprisngly small, considering the amount of blood flow they get. On that same note, the renal vasculature is disproportionately large for the organs the supply. I could go into some detail about the "cool" details of anatomy, but I'll spare you. Anyway, some cadaver specific stuff. Our cadaver's stomach is insanely large. It seriously takes up 1/4 of our abdominal cavity. Not normal. And coming back to the theme of obesity. Working through ass fat is disgusting. There was probably about 5 inches that we had work through. And when I say we, I mean the lab professor. We ended up dissecting through fat for an hour and a half, and didn't actually get around to identifying any real structures. Oh, and to give you a better idea of how much fat there was, our prof was getting pissed about how much fat there was and how fibrous it was. Oh, and said fat broke two scalpel blades. Not cool.

Histo
There are a lot of cells in the body. And unfortunately, a lot of them look the same to me. That is, until I spend inordinate amounts of time learning to tell differences. Learning about the function of different organs/tissues at the cellular level is actually kinda cool. Some might even say I'm okay with it. For example, I don't mind learning hepatic and immune histology, as long as it's only function related. Slides and electron micrographs, not so much. Ah well, at least after Monday I'll be done with histo until next semester :D

So that's what I've been up to the past two weeks. Lots of physiology, biochem/nutrition, and histology. Physio and biochem/nutrition felt like they went okay. This weekend it's all about histo. Hooray histo. And then it's onto the massive freak-out/cram fest that will be 2+ months of anatomy in two weeks. I get the feeling that I will be smelling like cadaver a lot during that period of time. Unfortunate. But, like I said earlier there are worse things in life. And hey, after anatomy - Thanksgiving! Can't go wrong with sleep and food. I'm a big proponent of both.

Patient/(Student) Doctor Interaction

Aside from our traditional science classes, one of the classes we're just now starting up is "Essentials of Clinical Medicine." It's actually a pretty cool "class." Minus the required attendance, that is. Boo to that. Anyway, class in quotes because it's not one in the traditional sense of lectures and labs. There are still lectures with all ~200 of us, but they aren't as hardcore as the other science ones we have. These lectures cover somewhat interesting topics. Today's was "cultural competency and health literacy," both legitimate concerns in a city like Chicago. Looking ahead, stuff like stress in medicine, teamwork, leadership, professionalism, and patient safety are also covered. Yeah I know, I said they were *somewhat* interesting. They're good things to cover, especially since everyone lacks in one or more department. Thing is, I don't think that you can really teach people these things. It's a nice idea though, and I like that they're trying to help develop professional skills.

Another aspect of ECM is that of small groups, in which we're divided into set groups of about 12 for the entire year, with M3s and M4s leading our groups. We touch on some of the stuff covered in lectures, but with more emphasis on clinical aspects. M1 year's small group emphasis is mostly on history taking and patient interviewing. Throughout the year we'll have our groups meet to talk/learn about different aspects of history taking and the patient interview. And the nice thing is that we actually get to head out to different hospitals to work on our this stuff, in addition to "learning" about it.

Along with the small group history and interview stuff, there's more clinical stuff. And I'll be honest, I'm a fan of clinical stuff. There's a few classes on taking vital signs. And even better, we get paired up with a Chicagoland primary care doctor and end up shadowing him/her throughout the year. From what I've heard, some of the cooler docs give some of their students quite a bit of latitude in clinic.

To those out there, you might be thinking "big whoop." Clinical stuff. I thought that's what med school was about. Actually for the first two years, a lot of med schools have little clinical stuff outside of extracurricular organizations (if even that). At these places it's straight up books for two years, first part of boards, and then straight into clinical rotations. I like what UIC is doing with ECM, giving us clinical experience within the M1/M2 curriculum - in addition to the numerous extracurricular opportunities. I especially like that they try and prep us for clinical rotations by teaching clinical skills the first two years (history taking M1 year, physical exam M2 year) in addition to giving us a lot of patient and doctor interactions. Again, a lot of schools don't do this. This is actually one reason that I picked UIC - they're known for producing clinically ready docs.

ECM started up last week and we got to interview our first patients as med students. I'd had decent exposure to this sort of patient interaction from my clinic job. Still, it was nice to dress up as a pseudo-doctor (white coat and all) get to actually get to talk to patients - especially for those who haven't done this sort of thing before. There was no real structure to the session - a resident and a (real) patient were up on stage and had a real medical interview for all of us to observe. We then broke down into groups, each complete with a patient to interview. It was a weird dynamic having six students interviewing one patient, but it worked out pretty well in my group. IMO, the idea of the session was to get us used to talking to patients and get us a rough idea of the types of questions to ask - because not everyone has this type of exposure. It was kinda cool seeing how different people interact with patients. Every group interviewed two patients and pretty much everyone had good things to say about the session. Our group was pretty lucky in that our patients were sociable and very unabashed in talking to six random kids about their medical problems. Both patients said they'd gladly have us as doctors. Sure I'm tooting my own horn there, but it's nice to hear that sort of thing amid all the studying.

Anyway, I head out to another free clinic this Saturday - this time up on the north side. I'm pretty excited about it, especially after my last free clinic experience. And the nice thing is that these free clinics are all through extracurricular organizations. UIC's students are amazingly good at organizing stuff like this and coordinating with other organizations/schools. I can't claim to help out, but I'm glad that these opportunities are out there. Aside from that, ECM is set to get going: vital signs, history taking, and finding out who our preceptor (shadowing doctor) all within the next few weeks. Now, if I didn't have a physio, histo, and biochem/nutrition exam all within a seven day period, things would be that much better. Ah well, comes with the territory I suppose.

A Day in the Life

For those that know me, you know that I went to the vast majority of my classes in undergrad. Enter med school, and not so much anymore. Labs and one lecture are the only things that bring me to the building called UIC COM. What do I do with all that extra time? Well, here's a rough idea of how this past week went down.

Our schedule changes every day and week. As a general rule though, we're supposed to start around 9:15 and finish up with lectures/labs sometime between 4:30-5:30. Anatomy lab has a nasty habit of running over, with some groups having to stay past 7:00. Anatomy days are always long days regardless. The professor likes talking over his allotted time by anywhere from 30-60 minutes...making it hard for me to judge when to show up to lab. And then lab. Fat cadavers: no fun. Cadaver anatomy not looking like pictures: no fun. Summation: long dissections.

You might notice that there's a lot of "study" going on during the day. Instead of lecture, that's what I'm up to. That's my attempting to catch up with classes. This endeavor meets with limited success. I only truly catch up if a class has an exam coming up. Anyway, some of that study the past week was working on this morning's 30 lecture biochem exam worth 45% of my grade. Even our usually chill study group was freaking out a little bit. Thirty lectures in less than a month is a bit intense for my liking. Especially when I hate biochem. Some of that study was also because I did absolutely nothing productive the weekend of 10/5 since my parents were visiting. Unless you count being out in Lincoln Park and downtown as productivity. And if productivity means awkwardtivity when coming in at 3:00 to my parents sleeping.

Either way though, after today's exam, I'm done with most of biochem. Seventy lectures in eight weeks. And I pretty much despised all of them. Hence, no ordinary post-exam drinking occasion. Tonight's drinkage will be happening down in Chambana.

And now, I'm off to sleep. And very well I might add.

Wow!

I've mentioned how much studying goes on for me now and how much it sucks. Today: 9-1230 downtown library, 130-630 anatomy lecture/lab, 830-12 more studying. Some of it is just of no interest to me (biochem, histology). And for that reason, I haven't been to those lectures since the first week. That, and I get more done on my own for those classes (e.g. why I was in the library from 9-1230).

Overall though, I find anatomy and physiology interesting. They're just a lot more applicable to what we'll eventually be doing. For both these reasons, it's somewhat easier and more enjoyable to study that stuff. This morning, I switched from anatomy (heart) to biochem (nitrogen metabolism) and it was painful. I just don't really care how or why certain amino acids get degraded. And the pathways. Way too many pathways. Not a fan of them - especially when they all start interacting with each other.

But getting back to the title of the post. I was catching up on heart readings this morning because we were going to dissect the lungs and heart in anatomy lab later in the day. Come 430, we took the heart out of our cadaver and were cutting into it. The feeling when I cut into the heart was one of awe. I was holding a human heart in my hands. To think that this heart was beating and keeping someone alive was amazing. This thing pumped ~70 times a minute for 75 years. Getting back to the dissection - seeing the inside of the heart and how everything relates and works together was, in the very sense of the word, awesome. Easily the highlight of med school so far (along with clinic). The muscular wall of the heart is a lot thicker than I thought it was going to be. Seeing the different structures, valves, vasculature - again awesome. Looking at/through the lungs was a similar experience - again thinking that I held the very organs that let this woman breathe. And once we took out both lungs, the diaphragm is sitting right there. The muscle that lets us breathe. Again, it contracted ~16 times/minute for 75 years. It's a lot bigger and thicker than I had imagined it.

Sure, we've been having anatomy lab for a while. But up until last week we'd been working on back and chest muscles. It wasn't until last week and today that we got to look at and dissect some of the major organs. And it was ridiculously exciting being able to see, touch, and cut into the same organs that we've heard about since grade school. A lot better than looking at rhomboid muscles in the back.

It was today that I realized it's a privilege being able to study anatomy on preserved cadavers. The fact that we get to dissect a human body from skin down to organs is something most people don't get to do. AKA - not everyone gets to hold a human heart, much less poke around inside it. With this realization, came an appreciation for those who donate their bodies to science and afford me this opportunity.

Having said that, a random note about obesity. Don't do it. Our cadaver is definitely obese. Makes finding and identifying things so much harder. Also, cutting through fat is not fun. Especially when it's three finger-widths thick in places. Oh, and when you're that big, fat is everywhere. Below the skin, around organs, fused to the heart. But like I said - I definitely appreciate the learning opportunities that our woman gives us.

It's nice to have days like this, getting to look at hearts and whatnot. Feeling excitement amid all the studying. Reminding us that there's cool stuff in medicine. AKA anatomy and physiology. Not histology. Not biochem.

Whew!

This week was the tail end of a round of exams - four in as many weeks. A nice exam-free two weeks, and then back into it again. Sure an exam a week doesn't sound so bad. Me and the other ~180 kids will vouch otherwise. I thought they went reasonably well - three of them I did above average on and one I did below average. Histology was the one I was most worried about, since I'd heard horror stories from last year's class. Something like the first exam's average being only a few point above passing. Buut, I found out Friday that I did pretty well - above average, and even a few points away from honoring the exam. So, I'm a pretty happy camper.

The exams themselves are rough just because of the amount of material covered in each. For this last histology exam, my group started studying Thursday or Friday for a Wednesday exam. Seems like a lot of studying, mostly because it is. Most of us felt okay at best going into the exam. There's just way too much material and too many styles of questions: looking at slides, evaluating micrographs, and regular lecture-based questions.

The thing that sucks about exam weeks is that you've gotta try and somewhat keep up with classes. Keyword: try. It's usually ended up that as an exam gets closer, other classes start taking a back seat. So in general, it's not if you're falling behind - it's a matter of how badly. Even on nonexam weeks, I'm usually behind. After exams, even more so. I've got about two weeks of anatomy, physio, and biochem to catch up on about now. So even without an exam coming up, there'll be weekend studying as if there was one. Bleh.

But, in getting back to the title of the post - it feels good to not have any exams this week. Feels even better knowing that I rocked that last histo exam. The combination of the two had me enjoy Wrigleyville that much more last night :D

R & R

When not being a med student, I've gotten the chance to check out Chicago a bit - one reason I was wanting to be at UIC. Soo, I've got a smallish list of the places I've hit up over the past few weeks.

Food
San Soo Gap San
This is a pretty sweet Korean barbecue place. Of course, I have no frame of reference from which to judge Korean barbecue. I did like the food quite a bit though. The barbecue (galbi) was really thinly sliced ribs that had been marinaded in goodness. They bring out the plates of galbi to the table. Buuut, the meat isn't cooked - they save that for the mini-grill that's brought to and set up at the table. Sure, some people might want their meat cooked before it gets to the table. I thought cooking it at the table added to the experience, especially since it didn't take very long. Oh, and about the table. It was one of those really low set ones that you sit on the floor for, Indian style.

There was a bunch of other food besides the barbecue circulating around the table. And to be honest, I didn't really know what most of it was. Along those lines, I'm pretty sure I was the least cultured one at the table. My inability to use chopsticks didn't help...especially since everyone was eating everything with them. As for the rest of the food though, most of it was pretty good, especially their "pancakes" (an appetizer). I think that these are what I had. As for beverages, I had some Korean beer - which was fine with me...nothing special, nothing horrible. Just kinda expensive. On top of the beer though, some of us had some soju. I thought it tasted like vodka, except that it's sweeter and goes down better. Funnily enough, wiki says similar things.

Minus my clothes smelling like barbecue afterwards, I liked San Soo Gap San. The food and drink were pretty good, but it was pretty expensive. The only downside to the place is that it seems like it's geared towards larger groups, in that there are only a few small tables (conventional or otherwise). This wasn't really a problem for us since we had a large group, but it's just something I noticed.

Sweet Maple Cafe
If you like breakfast food, you'll like this place. Hands down. Not too much to be said, except that this place serves breakfast and a few brunch items. And it's all really good. I've had two omelettes and they're definitely some of the better ones I've had. Their biscuits and spicy gravy are pretty good too. I'd never heard of "spicy gravy" before, but all I know is that I liked it. I didn't have the french toast or pancakes, but they were decently sized - much like the rest of their dishes. Only thing is that all this goodness will cost you a bit - something like $7-8 for the omelette. It does come with a tasty biscuit and some home fries though.

Bars
Here are a couple of the places that I've been over the past month. The first three places are lower profile sports/college bars. Lion Head/The Apartment is a two level place: downstairs has a sports/college bar with some decent food. Upstairs is The Apartment - it's got a pretty big dance floor with an understaffed bar off to the side. Funky Buddha is kinda small, but's a cool place to hang out (e.g. post exam party). And for those so inclined, there's a dance floor off to the side. The last two places are higher profile type of places, where you get dressed up only to get sweaty because 1.) you're probably dancing 2.) the place is too small. They're cool every now and then, but not really my types of places - mostly because I'm more into drinking than dancing.

Mad River
Abbey Pub
Drum and Monkey
Lion Head/The Apartment
Funky Buddha Lounge
Elm Street Liquor
Spy Bar

A few recurring themes. It's a bit more expensive to drink around here. And not just because of the drinks. Part of that comes from bathroom attendants being at every bar. I'd never had a bathroom attendant before. It was kinda weird the first time - having a guy waiting to turn on the faucet, give you soap, and then dry your hands. If I take more than a few pisses in the bathroom, I usually end up tipping the guy. The cab rides can be kinda expensive too - around $12-$20 depending on where we're coming from and going to. Splitting cabs helps that cause though. So does leaving a car downtown and then grabbing a cab to wherever.

A month into med school, and this covers most of what I do now: study, eat, sleep, drink. That first part has been getting pretty rough, especially this week. More on that later though. Anyway, even though it's a bit expensive whenever I go out (food and/or drink), it's worth it to me because 1.) it doesn't happen too often (~once/week) 2.) it's a good time and nice to get away from studying.

Free Clinic

Yesterday was my first clinical experience as a medical student. I spent five hours at a free clinic on Chicago's west side. The clinic is run by a nonprofit organization and is partially staffed by UIC volunteers (med students, residents, attendings) through a student organization. Anyway, the point is this was extracurricular to UIC's curriculum. UIC has some shadowing set up nine times throughout the year, but that's about it as far as clinical/patient contact goes. I just wish there were more chances to do stuff like this. Reason being, this stuff reminds me why I'm wading through insane amounts of facts and pathways. Being around patients again brought back why I'm doing all this and why it'll (hopefully) be worth it.

Anyway, as med students, the patients treated us as if we knew something. Scary things is, we don't really know anything at this point. Having said that, my having a reasonably heavy science background and decent clinical exposure made the whole experience so much better. Better in the sense that I understood some stuff that my higher-ups were talking about and kinda knew what was going on. Sure, it was all on a basic level, but it's more than some of my classmates can claim. Already having some idea of what's going on has me kinda excited...I might actually know what I'm doing in a few years. And that's just damn cool.

But even for those with less science and clinical experience, they had a lot of fun and enjoyed being around the clinic too. They got to see how some clinical aspects of medicine have ties to classes like physio and biochem. All around, it was a good experience for everyone. All the docs, residents, and med students were cool. No one was outrageously arrogant or anything like that - everyone was helping each other out and teaching whenever they could. That type of environment definitely made things a lot more enjoyable. I say that only because there are a few people in my class and probably a docs with whom I would not want to do a free clinic with. But, they probably wouldn't be in a free clinic anyway.

As for the actual patients, there was a good number of Spanish speaking ones. The dialog between the interpretor/med students and the patients was so fast, it was unbelievable. I was able to pick up bits and pieces, but a large portion of the conversation was obviously medically related. Since I don't have any exposure to that vocabulary or style of dialog, it made things that much harder to understand.

But, the patients were pretty cool in that they put up with having to see a lot of people over an extended period of time: an M1 and M2, then we bring in an M3/M4, and then the attending finally comes in with us. One patient can easily take over an hour to be seen. While this type of environment obviously kinda sucks for the patient, it's a pretty good learning environment. Especially for us M1s: we go in with the M2 and they do their thing, while teaching a bit here and there. Then an M3/M4 who's going through clinical rotations comes in with us: more teaching there. And repeat for when the attending comes in with us.

As for one patient, it was just a sad story. A Hispanic girl a little older than me came in complaining of shoulder, chest, and back pain. As the M2 and I are interviewing her, we find out that she's been having the pains for about a year and a half. She's been married for a year and a half and been in the country for two years. We ask if there's anything that sets off the pains, and she says that they happen when she's nervous and anxious. We present the case to the M3, and he comes in with us. Go through the story again, and focus a bit on the nervousness/anxiety. From her answers, we can tell something's up. We present to the attending and she comes in. After a few more focused questions on the anxiety, she breaks down and starts crying. She admits that her husband abuses her. The sad thing is that she's totally dependent on him - she's still in school and has no one else here. Just so sad how things can start out with general pains - then over the course of an hour pain is out of the picture and we find out about her husband.

This type of story wasn't an isolated one - another M1 had a similar patient. Another patient I saw was an alcoholic. If you were to look up alcoholic, you'd probably see his picture in the dictionary. He straight up admitted to drinking 2 liters of wine a day. But the reason he was in clinic was to check up on a blood pressure med switch. His other problems (blood pressure, prostate) were reasonably under control...not so much on the alcohol. I guess this type of demographic is expected at free clinics in big cities. I just hope that we were able to somewhat help them (even if I don't really know anything).

Even with it's low points, the free clinic was a nice break from all the book stuff. It was a nice reminder of why I got into this to begin with. Random clinical scenarios even reminded me that I'm actually absorbing some of this material. I might just be able to be one of those kids in the know and get to play doctor for real some day.

Under Door Number One...

I come back from class the other day, and I notice a few pieces of paper slid partially under my door. They're from my landlord and go something like this.

Dear Valued Tenants,
This Saturday, September 8, 2007 our plumbers will be working on the water lines. They have told us that the water will be shut off from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Please arrange your usage of water, bath, shower, toilet, etc. so this outage will have the least amount of impact to you.

The other piece of paper said that my apartment would be one that would have to be accessed for said work to be done. So right now (and since ~8:30) I've got plumbers coming in and out of my place. Whatever, shit happens. Not too much I can do about it.

I thought the last line of my landlord's letter was amusing: "arrange your usage..." AKA put off all bodily functions and cleaning for the day. Speaking of which, I most definitely have to use the bathroom right about now. Guess that gives me double motivation for heading off to the library right about now.

Labor Day Weekend

"Labor" is a good descriptor for most of the past weekend. In the interests of keeping whining to a minimum, I'll touch on the non-studying aspects of the long weekend.

During a study/lunch break, I saw that Michigan was losing to none other than the DI-AA champs of Appalachian State. Only reason I know that is because SIU has been fielding some decent I-AA teams of its own. Anyway, I didn't think the game would actually end like that. The Michigan alums in our class weren't too pleased. And actually, at a Michigan bar that I went to Saturday night, there weren't too many blue and yellows out and about. More on that later.

Between studying and going out Saturday, I was back at my place for a bit. Long enough for me to catch the tail end of the Illinois game. That McGee kid didn't do too bad for his first game. I only saw the two picks, so I can't really comment on his turnovers. But, I thought he did a decent job, especially leading the comeback. Well, until he threw the pick. And I didn't see Juice play, but I thought McGee was a better passer than I remember Juice being. Better in that he makes better decisions and throws.

I mentioned that I went out to some bar Saturday night. One of my friends is a USC fan. In continuing his and his friends' tradition from last year, they wanted to head out to this bar in Lincoln Park that's known as a USC and Michigan hangout. Like I said, the place was *devoid* of any blue and gold. Kinda funny, IMO. As for the game we watched, USC won - but that's kinda expected against Idaho. There was a sweet play where one of USC's receivers had a pretty nice one handed TD grab. Almost as nice as the Oronde Gadsen catch over the middle from a few years ago. I know, Oronde who? Took me a second to remember his name also. As for the bar itself: decent place to hang out. You can look it up (Mad River) here. My burger was okay at best. Although, the nacho plate we got was ginormous. We couldn't finish it. The place has a sports bar theme going on earlier in the night, and it gradually shifts over to a real bar later. And by "shift over" I mean they start taking the chairs and tables. That we're sitting on. Ah well, at least they played some good music. AKA, some stuff from the 90s and not all techno or rap. Final note: don't open a tab. Shit adds up faster than I would've liked.

Monday night, a few of us were coming back from the library and decided to eat. There's an area near my place with a decent number of restaurants, bars, and small shops. One of these is a Mediterranean restaurant. After having it for the first time, I'd have to say that I like Mediterranean food. Or at least, food from the one place. Had some couscous and falafel. Kind of a mainstream dish, but I might as well start out with that. Good stuff. The couscous was spicy. Not in a really hot, buffalo wing type of way. But spicy so that I noticed it and it gave the food some flavor. That combined with the fact that it was lamb couscous made for a good meal. I've always been a fan of lamb. We were originally going to eat at an Indian restaurant, but they were closed. Guess my first Indian food will have to wait until next time.

Week Deux

Disclaimers: this first paragraph is med school work-related whining. See next paragraphs for less venting. Also, this post is a little more disjointed than usual. It happens.

The second week of med school is behind me. I'm exhausted. Excluding finals and MCAT, I've also just studied on a Friday night for the first time. The fact that there were other people with me makes that previous statement less lame (barely). Buut, assuming I get enough done tomorrow, that means this M1 will feel okay going out tomorrow night! Hooray! And then Sunday it's back to more studying for my first biochem exam. Apparently there's three more biochem lectures right after the exam, along with physio. LAAAME. Buut, there's gonna be a post-exam party. It is *so* on then. Rinse and repeat for exams every week. The sheer volume of material is what makes things so hard. I've done okay keeping up with the material after class most days - but sitting down to a full binder of lecture notes after two weeks is kinda intimidating. Next week, more of my time disappears as anatomy and histology take turns eating up my afternoons. Haven't had histo yet, but the first anatomy lecture went over by about an hour. Oh and I found out that anatomy has a year-long cumulative lecture final. Uncool. Hooray more material and less time!

If you actually read that previous paragraph, I would like to give you a cookie. I'm not pissed or anything, but everything's just such a huge change for me. Even tonight, we were talking about this type of stuff and just had to laugh about it. We marked "yes" when schools asked us whether we were taking their acceptance offer and (somewhat) knew what we were getting into. Anyway, for non-whiny stuff, read on.

Back during orientation week, there was a med school organization fair that's analagous to UIUC's Quad Day. Also, since we have all our lectures in the same room, four of the six chalkboards usually have organizations' announcements posted: meetings, events, free lunches, socials, and whatnot. Between these two sources, I signed up for a few extracurriculars: two free clinics, a phlebotomy club, Asian-Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA), a medical Spanish class, and a couple of specialty groups (ER, surgery, family med). The free clinics and phlebotomy classes were insanely popular to the tune of only 30-40% of students actually getting to do them. I'm in at one free clinic, waiting to hear about the other one, and out of the phlebotomy classes. I'm pretty excited to get to do the free clinic. That and any other limited UIC curricular clinicals we get this year: shadowing and a few basic clinical skills. APAMSA seems like a good organization for me...for more than just the obvious reason. It'll get me some of that culturing that I'm wanting, they have community service projects like free health screening in Chinatown, and they've got their own socials. The medical Spanish class is less productive than I was hoping for. I just can't pick up the language I need to at this point. I guess I kinda knew this going in, but still. The classes are run by a Hispanic med student organization at three different levels. I'm at the beginner level, and things are just way over my head. I can understand some of what's going on and have picked up on a few medical terms. I just can't put things together well enough to really understand, much less hold a conversation. In the clinic, conversations won't be as structured or slow paced as they are in class. Either way, I feel sorry for those in the class who are true Spanish beginners.

I mentioned that organizations post announcements like meetings in our lecture hall. Since every M1 and M2 has the same lunch break, meetings are usually held over the lunch hour, with free lunches usually provided. I have so been taking advantage of this. It's cheaper and it beats walking back to my place. Things only get tricky when they check the organization's member list. That's when I have to try and remember which friend is in which organization, so I can be them (if they're not there, of course). But free lunches are my thing now partly because these first few weeks have been expensive. Rent, utilities and their "setup fees," books (I've been trying to limit these, but it's still expensive), microscope fees, transcription services, and anatomy supplies...adds up pretty fast. Boo to that. But I've been blessed with parents who've helped a little bit with med school so far and will continue trying to. Eases the financial load a bit. Between the parents and me, I hopefully won't have to get a budget extension and/or private loans on top of the ~$43k budget, like some classmates are having to. Third and fourth years are even more expensive, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I'm hoping to get out of UIC with no more than $200k in debt. We'll see what happens.

Back to the present...this past and upcoming week have and will be the real adjustments to med school. With the first few exams and full schedule coming up, I'll be able to gauge how things are/should be going. Maybe I'll even figure out a routine that lets me keep up with all the material while still having time to go out once or twice a week. Seems like the main linchpin in said plan is truly studying when I'm trying to study. What I did in undergrad didn't work for the first few days. I've had to go to the library to get any real work done. It takes so much longer to get work done at home (if at all). There's just too many distractions at home: email, facebook, aim, 360, tv, food, naps. With a full week of the full schedule coming up, if that means heading to the library right after class, so be it. But at least I'll get my work done and out of the way. I've been packing some snacks, sandwiches, and drinks with me when I go to the library and this has seemed to work out pretty well. And the people I've started studying with are about my same style. We're in the same area, but don't really bother each other except for occasionally bouncing questions off each other and taking breaks. Sometimes I'm on my own when meeting up falls through for whatever reason or by choice. When this happens, the main Chicago library has been a pretty cool place for me. It's only about a 5 minute L ride and it's a really big, nice, and quiet place for me to get shit done. And for breaks, I'm in downtown Chicago. I think I can figure out ways to entertain myself there. So pretty much the plan for the next few weeks goes something like this: work hard, play harder.

First Week

Again keeping with themed weeks, this past one was my first one of classes. This shit is definitely as hard as it was hyped up to be. Even though the first week was designed to ease us into med school, I'm already a bit overwhelmed by it. There are going to be concepts that are harder than others, but it's the pace of med school that makes things difficult. Some biochem lectures have covered a week's worth of undergrad biochem in fifty minutes. On top of that, some days have had three biochem lectures in one day.

It's not only the pace of the material, but also the amount of material that makes things harder. I've slowly started getting used to last week's pace, but this week adds on more classes until it's eventually 9:00-4:00 days of class. That's just a shitton of school. Also kinda sucks because pretty much everyone above me has been saying we have to keep up with the material...we can't wait until exam time and cram undergrad style. After a little taste, I can see where they're coming from. I've been trying (semi-successfully) to keep up, but it's definitely a change from undergrad. I'm used to not having to deal with school once I get home. Not so much now. But it sounds like everyone else is struggling to keep up too, so that's a bit encouraging.

I'm sure I'll adjust in time, but the amount and pace of material is still a little shocking. This is what I'd always heard, I just had no idea what it was like. The encouraging thing is that only(?) seven people didn't finish their M1 year last year. I would've liked to hear that everyone finished M1, but whatever. I've heard and it seems to be true that once you get in, UIC will try to get you through in four years. It's just that the help isn't as readily accessible as at other (non-state) schools.

So yeah, there's my take on the first week of med school. I'll try and keep the whining about school to a minimum, but there are no guarantees :) I'm hoping in six months or a year, I'll look back and think it wasn't so bad. Until then, this week's high points will be naptime and part of the weekend. I say part of the weekend because we've already got an exam next week. And the week after that. And so on and so forth. Sooo, naptime and weekends, yay!

Culturally Challenged

One thing that UIC's med school is known for is its diversity, both in terms of patient and student population. These are two reasons that I wanted to come to UIC, aside from some other obvious ones.

Having said that, I'm pretty lacking in the diversity department. Being around all sorts of different people with different backgrounds this past week, I came to realize just how culturally retarded I am. In Harold and Kumar terms, one might consider me a "twinkie." Here's to hoping UIC can help me out in that regard. So in terms of foresight and getting some culture, I give myself a gold star.

Even within my own cultural background, I'm a bit lacking. My parents came up this weekend for our white coat ceremony. (About the WCC: what it sounds like, where we get our first white coats.) Anyway, after the ceremony we went up to the north side to visit my parents' old stomping grounds. Up there, we shopped at a Filipino grocery store and ate a nice, purely Filipino cuisine restaurant. Even though I'd had some of the stuff at both places, some of it didn't have a name as far as I knew, and even more of it was unfamiliar to me. Ah well, it's all good stuff as far as I'm concerned. My parents even bought me a decent amount of food to take home. Later on, we met up with a cousin of mine had dinner at a Filipino cafe. At least here I'd heard of most of the stuff. I even knew what was in some of it.

Soo, hopefully over the next few years I'll learn a little culture, along with the whole medicine deal. On both notes, I'm looking into taking a medical Spanish class through UIC. After around seven years of Spanish, my handle on it is pretty sad.

On a random note: since I don't feel like making a separate post, I've got a few pics from the day of the white coat ceremony. We've been told that the WCC celebrates getting into med school. But it still feels weird having a white coat ceremony, since we haven't done anything in med school yet. Whatever though, it is what it is.

O-Week

In keeping with themed weeks, this one is orientation week for me. I'm pretty much done minus my white coat ceremony. There are two words to describe how things have been going: (very) tiring & (extremely) fun. There's the expected welcomes, speeches, introductions, how-tos, and whatnot going on during the day. Then at night there's usually two if not three social (read: drinking) events happening right after each other. And then it's been rinse/repeat bright and early the next day. Like I said, tiring but fun.

The whole aspect of no one really knowing each other is pretty cool; there's a lot of random introductions that would never happen otherwise. That combined with the realization of med school looming makes for some pretty fun nights. Kinda sucks, because in a few weeks the class probably won't be as openly friendly as it is now. Guess that comes with the territory though.

About those nights. Like I said, there's usually a few social events going on each night. Only a few things to note on the bars we've been to. The M2s did a really good job mixing up the bars, both in terms of location and style. We've been around my neighborhood, Irving Park, Wrigleyville, and River North (part of downtown) at local, live music, sports, and clubbing bars. About the last venue...for those that know me, yes I did dance. The fact that it was mostly med students helped that cause. And no, it wasn't a drunk dance, and no it didn't end as badly as the last time I was known to dance. That aside, it was a good mix of places and it was fun seeing different parts of the city besides downtown. The only downer is having to pay for drinks every night for the past week. They're hands down made stiffer vs. Champaign but you're definitely paying more.

As for the nondrinking activities, those were all pretty fun too. Fun and free :D, courtesy of UIC. One thing we did was play Whirlyball. If you're about to head over to google or wikipedia, I'll give a quick rundown. There are two teams of five. You're in bumper-style cars carrying a lacrosse-style stick. The idea is to drive around and try to shoot a wiffle ball into a hole made into a basketball style backboard. Bottom line: insanely fun stuff, but kinda hard, especially since you can drink before and after playing. Buuut, you *are* in bumper cars and get to slam into other people. The place overall though has a sports bar theme with plenty of TVs, pool, darts, basketball, and whatnot to keep you busy while waiting for courts to open up. Sooo, whirlyball: a little bit of everything, a lot better and more fun than it sounds.

Another social event was a Cubs game. Even though I'm not really a baseball fan, it was still a really good time. I didn't really grow up in Chicago so I'm not as intense as the natives in terms of north/south side. But I was born and spent a few years on the far north side (Rogers Park) so I guess by default, that makes me a bit of a Cubs fan. Anyway, Wrigley is a small park, but it adds to the experience IMHO. Even being in the most horrible seats possible (back top corner of the stands), we were able to see the game reasonably well. And not counting the 1.5 hour rain delay, it was a pretty entertaining game: a hit/HR fest is always good for casual fans. Too bad the Cubs got the raw end of the festivities.

As fun as those two events were, the cruise on Lake Michigan takes the cake. Hands down, no contest, not even close. The boat itself is insanely nice, with a cash bar available, buffet dinner provided, and a dance floor open afterwards. (For those curious, yours truly didn't get around to dancing until the bar afterwards.) But the best thing was just being able to see Chicago from the lake. The boat leaves Navy Pier around 7:00 and cruises up and down the coast. So you're out there as the sun's getting ready to set and for a while afterwards. Bottom line, twilight Chicago from the lake is beautiful. Having seen the skyline from a few different locations, the lake's is definitely the winner. I was apparently in the uncool group and didn't bring a camera. I was a little upset about that one. But if you're ever in Chicago and have a little money to burn, you *have* to try out this booze cruise. Amazing.

Oh yeah. Money. There was a lot of that spent this week. Some of the stuff was free: lunch, Whirlyball, and the cruise. Oh, and transportation to the socials was free...courtesy of three fully loaded school buses. Apparently, there are seat belts on buses now. One kid even used them. Unfortunately, the pleather smell is still there though. Kinda funny seeing three buses come up to bars around 11:00. Or up to Navy Pier, only to have kids in semi-formals unload instead of grade schoolers. But yeah, a lot of money was spent over the past week between drinking, eating, cabs, and L rides home. It was worth it just because of the type of week it was and since it was a good time. No way I can keep this up for a year though. Hopefully though, our class will still be able to do stuff like this every now and then, med school and money permitting.

I have never done so much socializing and drinking in such a short period of time. It's been a really good week, even if there was all the "real" o-week stuff going on during the day. But it's nice to be able to sleep in today and not have any UIC things to do. Only things on today's agenda are errands I couldn't do during the week, some paperwork, cleaning up the place a bit before family comes in, and getting my cell phone back from Yellow Cab. Oh, and seeing if I can't make money grow on trees. Otherwise, you can add being an even cheap(er) ass med student to the list. But as busy and tiring as this past week has been, it makes me realize that med school is more of the same, and then some. Minus a lot of the fun. Uncool. True for the real world too, but it sucks when it's your turn to face all that.

Moving Week

My past week or so has been spent doing one of a few things: driving/training between home and Chicago, furnishing shopping, unpacking, and assembling furniture. Minus a bed, futon, and air conditioner, all my stuff came from either Target or Ikea. A decent amount of money and time later, my apartment is setup mostly the way I'm wanting it.

Before
Bedroom




Kitchen


One of two front doors.


Living Room
From kitchen


There's a reasonably large closet and a back door behind the wooden panels.


The other front door and what I've decided is my dining/study area.


After






In looking for a window A/C, I measured the square footage to be ~450. The landlord was a little off on his guess of 1000.









And the view from the sundeck on my building's roof.


I'm liking the place. Plenty of room...450 square feet is bigger than I thought. And that's not including the bathroom, ginormous pantry, bedroom closets, or back closets. Even though it's a bit more than I was wanting, hopefully the rent stays at $1050, because I love the place and location.

Sushi Sampling

Over the past two weeks, I've had more sushi than I've ever had before. That's not saying much since I've never had sushi until about two weeks ago.

For my birthday, my family and I ate at a local Japanese steakhouse...complete with hibachi grills. I had some shrimp and scallop hibachi, calamari, and two foreign beers. Good stuff there. But I also figured I'd try out some sushi. The idea of raw fish has never appealed to me. Until recently, that is. It's been growing on me for the past few months for some reason.

Sooo, I ended up having some salmon sushi. It was a la carte, with just rice...no seaweed rolls, fillings, or anything. It was surprisingly good and tasted kinda how I would've expected it to...weird as that sounds. There were only three pieces, but I downed them pretty fast.

Fast forward to today, and I decided to try out some more sushi. Had me some tuna, eel, and some sort of crab rolls. The tuna was pretty good, although it was kinda weird not seeing tuna all shredded up in a Starkist tin. The crab roll was also really good...some of that may have to do with the extra fillings that came with the roll. After downing my tuna, I decided I wanted more sushi. I figured since I was trying out new stuff, I'd go all out and try the eel roll. I've never had cooked eel before, but I can vouch for raw eel. It was kinda squishy when I got to the eel and tasted kinda like eggplant. Although, that may have been the fillings that tasted like eggplant. Hell if I know. All I do know is that the eel roll was good. That and my sushi orders came out to $15. It was definitely worth it though.

Bottom line: give sushi a shot...you might like it. This message brought to you by a former "non-sushier."