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."