Day 1351: You, again

Today's picture: you, again

The epitome of me: funny face, fun nails

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?

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.

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).

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.

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.

Day 1341: Reflection

Today's picture: Reflection

Studying with the reflection of my window in the screen.

Hello neuroscience!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

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!

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.

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!