Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Day 1351: You, again

Today's picture: you, again

The epitome of me: funny face, fun nails

Monday, January 30, 2012

Day 1350: Nature

Today's picture: nature


I took this picture about a week or two ago on the way back to my apartment. The entire sky was cloudy and twinged coraly-pink-orange due to the incoming rain but still cold/freezing temperatures. This was also my first encounter with freezing rain. On the short walk from the parking lot to my apartment, I almost slipped and fell twice. Twice!

Things Wisconsin/the midwest has introduced me to thus far: driving in snow, removing/scraping snow from my car, buying actual snow boots, walking (and slipping) in freezing rain.

What more do you have for me Wisconsin?

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Day 1348: Light

Today's picture: light


This light is in my living room. Of course as a poor graduate student, I bought the cheapest upright lamp they sold at Target. I am still very California (aka green-friendly) so I bought an energy-saving bulb. Too bad this bulb is bigger than the lamp "shade" because this is what it looks like when alight. My attempts to be classy are often thwarted by my a) cheapness, b) green-ness or c) both.

EXAMS ARE NEXT WEEK. LET'S SEE HOW MUCH STUDYING I GET DONE IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS. EEP.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Day 1347: Lunch

Today's picture: lunch


I woke up late today so I stayed home to study. Luckily, this lunch was all packed the night before!

For those of you interested in my food fare, this is a pretty standard lunch for me. An apple, plus another type of fruit, a peanut butter sandwich (crunchy! Yum!) and salad with tomatoes, onions, cheese (and mushrooms).

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Day 1346: Colo(u)r

Today's picture: colo(u)r


Now that I am a poor graduate student, I am constantly looking for new ways to still stay fashionable, but on a budget. This entire week, I have been swiping on these two lip colors to mix up my look. It has definitely been noticed by my classmates!

It's just a way for me to still feel pretty when all I do is stare at a computer and learn things like this:


Welcome to the second semester of medical school.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Day 1344, Part 2: How to study.

I have found a new routine for studying.

    1. Read over whatever subject I am studying at the time.


     2. Type/Write out what I just went over to see how much I know.


    3. Check the notes again for whatever I don't know.
        Next, write in bold the stuff I don't know.
        CAPS things that are important (that I also did not know).


      4. Repeat.

 (A secret step: Blog about it when you are on studying overload and want to procrastinate before you get back into it.)


This method has actually been working pretty well for me thusfar. Except when I get too sick of studying. Then I write things like this to keep it interesting.

Day 1344: Guilty pleasure

Today's picture: guilty pleasure

As you all know, this is a very guilty pleasure of mine. It isn't alcohol, or cigarettes, or drugs. It is magazines/pop culture.



Holy balls I love this stuff. Who's divorcing who? (Seal and Heidi! Shocker!) Who were the surprises for Oscar nominations this year? (Melissa McCarthy! Woot!) Who's wearing what, et cetera, et cetera. It's fascinating. I love this stuff and yet I hate Facebook. I think I like knowing about people who I know I will never meet, haha.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Day 1343: 新年快樂!

I don't have a picture today.

What I do have are merry greetings for a happy new year! :) According to fengshuiforus.com (which you know has to be a legitimate source), "dragon years are expected to be full of benevolence and grace." Well, something to look forward to!

Courtesy of the LA Times

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Day 1341: Reflection

Today's picture: Reflection


Studying with the reflection of my window in the screen.

Hello neuroscience!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Day 1340: Someone you love

As we all expected, I could not keep up "a photo a day" for the month of January. I am not thwarted though! I am going to post pictures that come more naturally. So, for today's picture, I present to you:

Viktor Stumblebum, someone I love.


He has a very sexy pose, I know. He loves me too apparently, haha

With exams coming up, I really still am not freaked out. I'm sure I will after the first exam but I am just going to do the best I can and know that I gave it everything I had.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Day 1338: Something you bought

Today's picture: Something you bought



I bought this new eyelash curler when I found out they no longer sold the Shu Uemura eyelash curler in the states. I tested it for the first time today and I love it!

School-wise, exams are coming up in 10 days. I really am not stressed about exams. I probably should be but ...I'm not. We'll see how I feel next week. Aside from that, it snowed yesterday, I almost froze my hands to death when I brushed/scraped the snow off my car. Boring boring.

Oh! Important school stuff. Lately, my physiology class has been very physics-heavy. Lots of Ohm's Law and lots of flow and resistance stuff. Dad! You would be so proud. And, you would probably understand bloodflow better than I would, haha.

One last thing, this whole anti-piracy situation going on is a wee bit tedious for those of us in graduate school. I don't have Wikipedia, okay, fine. I have books I can learn from. But I can't even make my flashcards today! I mean, yay for solidarity but come on. Some of us have to save lives in the future ;)

Okay, back to the books! See you all tomorrow!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Day 1337: Water

Today's picture: water


I know you can't tell by the picture but that misty bottom portion of the picture is the fog that developed on my side of the window. And then there are the water droplets outside my window. And by water droplets, I mean snow. It is, yes, snowing again here. I am not complaining, solely stating a fact. The weather is awful outside and luckily I have no required classes to attend today so I am staying inside. Depending on how the weather fares (fairs?) later today, I may head out to the gym. If not, I will just stay home and learn.

I apologize for not posting yesterday. I just couldn't make the "morning" post happen. Anyway, I didn't study as much as I wanted to yesterday but I did get to connect with some of my med school friends here and have really invigorating conversations about religion and life and the sort. It wasn't the best academic use of my time, I felt like it was still a great use of my personal time. I feel very lucky to have found friends I can speak openly with about any and most subjects.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Day 1335: Happiness

Today's post: happiness

My dream team: David Akers (2), Alex Smith (11), Vernon Davis (85)

The 49ers are going to the NFC Championship game! The stress is ON!

(If the Pack win today then they play the 49ers! WHO DO I CHEER FOR THEN?!)

Anyway, the meet-and-greet with the deans and professors went well. I chatted with some doctors, but I basically got to go to a super-swanky place and drink some booze and eat, no joke, about a dozen beef wellingtons. Gosh they were delicious.

I have a story for all of you! I lost my phone Thursday (January 12th) night. I was in a tizzy about it until I found it Friday (the 13th!) morning. In the snow. Outside my apartment. Still perfectly functional. Long story short, I went out with some classmates Thursday night. My friend picked me up. My phone fell out of my pocket and into the snow, where it lay, overnight, until I went out the next morning to search for it. I retraced my steps and uncovered all the snow where I trekked and there it was! Right near the street curb! Thank GOODNESS the weather stayed cold and there was no melting or freezing of snow!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Day 1334: Something you're reading

Today's picture: Something you're reading


A) I may have oversaturated this picture. Oh well.

B) As you can see, this is a pile of books I have on my "wish I could read but I have enough trouble reading med school things" list. I have read On the Road before and The Sartorialist is a great little book to flip through when I'm feeling bored with my wardrobe. The books I really want to read though are Alphabet Juice (which a pal bought for me at a used book store back home in California), The Hobbit (Danny's favorite book ever which he has so kindly lent me) and my most recent personal purchase 10 Billion Days and 100 Billion Nights (I heard about this book on NPR and love the idea of it! WAIT. THERE'S A KINDLE EDITION I COULD HAVE BOUGHT FOR CHEAPER?!) I'll let you know if I actually read any of these things. School is such a time-suck.

AND! A fun little after thought. This was the Google Doodle today (somewhere in the world). How fortuitous because I was just listening to a story about the Taiwanese election yesterday.


Friday, January 13, 2012

Day 1333: In your bag

Today's picture: in your bag


I am obsessed with this bag. I bought it over winter break and I take this bag with me everywhere that doesn't have the word "school" in it. I have an optometrist appointment today and I haven't decided if I am going to study at a cafe nearby or if I'm going home. I am going to summarize some neuroscience notes hence the bookbook and my actual notebook. Then I have my pencil case (blue thing), my wallet and a water bottle (hydration is critical!).

Happy Friday the 13th! May terribly unlucky things happen to you today!

Tonight, my first-year classmates and I have a little meet-and-greet with the/some deans and doctors/professors.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Day 1332, Part 2: Snow Day!

I must apologize. I find that my "Snow Day!" title may express excitement that there was snow. Let me tell you what there actually was. Panic attacks. Freak outs. A little fishtailing. A little anti-locking of brakes. More panic attacks. More freak outs.

Much to my parents' assumed dismay and alarm, I had to drive during the snow "storm" today. I only call it a "storm" because it actually snowed consistently (rather than for an hour or two) and the snow is sticking. I drove to interview Danny's grandmother for my psych class and I almost died when I 1) felt my anti-lock brakes kick in, 2) fishtailed a little. Thank baby insert-religion-here that I had Danny in the car with me because I would just crawled to a stop and had a HUGE freak out in the middle of the road!

Anyway, I wanted to let you all know I successfully drove in the snow today! It still scares the beetlejuice out of me, but at least I have experience! I'll need more to feel comfortable/confident but little by little, I'll get there.

Here are some pictures. They aren't the best quality, but pictures make blog posts so much more fun don't you think?

My car when I left this morning!

My tire tracks as I pulled into my parking spot.

The walk to my apartment building. Fresh snow!

Day 1332: Close-up

Today's picture: close-up


I'm not sure what exactly this is supposed to be a close-up of so I chose a close-up of a new fragrance I'm trying. I wanted to do a close-up of my nails, but close-up finger nails never look good. I feel like I'm photographing walrus skin with funky colors/patterns on it's tusks.

Currently, I am studying. What is new? I feel like I understand all the material thus far, but I haven't committed all of it to memory yet. I am still trying to figure out how to do that in the most efficient way. Would any of you have any tips as to how you learned things in your undergraduate/graduate years of schooling?

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Day 1331: Where you sleep

Today's picture: where you sleep


My bed is super high because my room here in Wisconsin is small. As a result, I need to maximize my space. Which translates into a bed that I actually have to jump in to. Ha!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Day 1330, Part 2: Anger as a means of motivation

Students who were selected to become board members of the Saturday Clinic met earlier today. While waiting for my friend to put things in his locker, I noticed that all the current board members were in a conference room near our lockers. THIS IS WHERE THE NEW BOARD MEMBERS ARE MEETING THE CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS (I thought). Well, I was very curious to see who was selected to be a board member over me. Is that overly dramatic of me? Of course it was.

Anyway, I see one of my classmates enter the room and I am PISSED to see who it is. I have no better word to describe the coursing anger that pulsed through my veins. THEY PICKED HER OVER ME?! HER?! OVER ME?! This is pretty much went on in my mind the entire lunch period. There I was, having lunch with my friends and I was seething. I mean not in a "don't-approach-her-for-fear-she-may-stab-me-with-her-plastic-fork" kind of way, but more "I-am-going-keep-letting-you-all-know-how-pissed-I-am" sort of way. I mean, I was crazy mean about it. Saying some really terrible things, trying to figure out how they could have possibly chosen her over me. I was probably unnecessarily mean about it.

The moral of this story is, I have decided to channel this anger into something more productive. Which is crushing all of my exams because honestly, if you picked her over me, you MUST be delusional. Now, I am going to ace every exam just to show you how absurdly crazy you were to pick her. HER!

Day 1330: Childhood & classes

Today's picture: childhood


How cute is baby Jessica?! I probably still fit into that dress ;)

Anyway, today I wanted to let you all know why class is a waste of (my) time. Classes run from 8am to 3/4/5pm. This is an entire day of attending lectures that are either too slow or have too much information for me to process or are dimly lit and cause me to fall asleep. And if I actually attended class, I would be both worn out and still expect myself to study afterwards. Med school is no joke! This is worst than a full-time job! I highly do NOT recommend attending medical school! (This is only a half-joke.) For me, going to the library and going over the information myself is the best use of my time. The best part is, I get to go over the information with classmates which helps solidify it for me.

However, let me be honest. I am still trying to figure out how to do this little thing called medical school. Bleck.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Day 1329: Daily routine and more school grouchiness.

Today's picture: daily routine

My cute little lunch pail, backpack and library desk and chair.
As usual, I have been unfocused since school began. I mean, not terribly unfocused. I think after two glorious weeks of nothing, I am re-acclimating myself to learning (a lot). I think part of the problem is, we are learning all new information. It feels like I am starting back at square one. I need to figure out what the professor(s) wants and drill it into my brain.

Issues:
  • Cell tissue biology is boring.
  • Medical neuroscience is boring.
  • Physiology is not interesting yet (I loved this class in my post-bacc program and med school has managed to ruin it by making it detail-heavy!)
Alas, I will find a way to get my groove back. And when that happens, you can call me Stella!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Day 1328: News, somethings new and balls.

News: I was rejected (aka not chosen) to be a board member for the Saturday Clinic (for the uninsured) that my school's students run. Oh well. I'm not terribly upset by it but it would have been nice to be chosen.

Something new: I want to do this (see below)


It will force me to blog every day (much to the chagrin of my mother, I'm sure) and let's be real. I'm not studying all 16 hours I'm awake. And of course I will begin this tomorrow (January 9th) since it is a) almost 9pm, b) it is dark outside, c) I am inside at my school library.

More something new: I think it is time to post pictures of myself. Why? Every good, highly-visited blog has pictures of the person on their blog. I have finally accepted the fact that I am not as important or stalk-able as I think I am and I should therefore have my picture up.

More, more something new: I gave a tour of my school on Friday! I showed applicants where everything was (library, student lounge, classrooms, etc) and was terribly myself (aka crazy and probably intense). My friend AO was so funny. She came on the tour with me and was so confused when I was sweet and kind and actually (gasp!) friendly to the applicants. I tried to forewarn them all that medical school is a terrible, horrible thing that everyone should avoid but they weren't interested in that spiel (I wonder why). Overall, the tour was a lot of fun and I hope I see some of those applicants next year!

Balls: I went to a ball (aka dance) last night! I took Bruce/Danny (he wants the world to know who he is!) to the ball and it was ...a decent amount of fun. I wasn't blown away by the ball but it was still fun to be dressed up with friends and classmates. The beginning of picture posts! Two images below!

I actually like all the people (my classmates) in this picture! Shocker!

Me and Danny

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Day 1324: Happy 2012!

Hello hello! I hope the end of 2011 treated you well and that 2012 began with a bang! Or, maybe not something so loud, but in whatever way that was fun and bang-worthy for you. Oh, speaking of "bang," I got bangs!


Anyway, I was all ready to post some reflective things before 2012 came into play but I was caught up in traveling back to Milwaukee on the 30th that I basically did a whole lot of nothing when I got back. Well, that's not true. I went to a party, two in fact! One at a classmate's house and another at Bruce's cousin's house. All were perfectly fine, nothing too exciting, which suits me just fine. Then I cleaned my room and apartment and prepared myself for the frigid weather (it was 19-degrees as a high on Monday!).


Classes began on Tuesday and it has been go-go ever since. I don't have my last "go" (as in go-go-go) because it's been a bit slow, picking it back up, but let me tell you, medical school waits for no one! I am trying something new and making flashcards to help me study for my classes this semester. I have the lovely cell tissue biology, physiology (a class I really enjoyed in post-bacc), medical interviewing, psychiatry (very basic stuff), and medical neuroscience (brains!) this semester.

I figured out some new learning strategies in hopes that I will have figured out medical school by the end of this semester block soon. I hope to write some reflective, emotional (boring!) things in the coming days so that it's not just the same ol' "school is hard" stuff. That gets so boring to write and to read I imagine.

On the agenda, a formalish ball with my classmates on Saturday -- dressing up! An optometrist appointment -- vision! A business-casual-esque meeting with academic deans next week -- semi-dressing up and schmoozing! Oh, and studying. Always studying.