Month: September 2011

Day 29: And the verdict is…

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane image of the day:

Just in case you were wondering, this is the pile of notecards that I ended up with before the exam today… pretty impressive, eh?

I think now is an optimal time to highlight two of my favorite food analogies for what the workload is like in medical school. First and foremost, pancakes [click on the link for a written entry, or try the YouTube video version] and the competitive eater. For anyone currently in or who has completed medical school, you will chuckle and feel a sense of familiarity with the idea. I read the latter entry prior to starting at OUWB and thought I was a step ahead of the game because I knew what was coming — but in reality, you just cannot fully wrap your mind around what it feels like to be in medical school until you experience it for yourself.

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Day 28: Final countdown and 9/11 reflections

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane image of the day:

Thank you S from my TBL group for creating this masterpiece of a brachial plexus, then offering to make color copies for each of us! 

That’s right, I finally mastered the intricacies of the brachial plexus and tucked it away deep in my brain. Although I thought it was a lot to remember, I still don’t understand why Dr. Bee was stressing that we memorize it nearly 3 weeks before the exam… I kind of thought it was something fun and different to focus on after staring at Powerpoint lectures from 8am until midnight last night.

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Day 27: Study day

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane images of the day:

A couple of things to note: 1.) large stack of notecards only represents a small fraction of the lectures I should know by now; 2.) I really like studying in my kitchen, which leads to the issue of stress eating and consumption of foods I would normally have the will to say “no” to; 3.) What’s open on my laptop: lecture and Facebook.

Yesterday’s caffeinated beverages ingested: 1 solo espresso, 1 tall iced coffee, 2 Irish breakfast teas, 1/2 Red Bull

I am so behind. And frightened. And quite depressed that the clouds won’t cease their downpour on this area. It’s as if Mother Nature sensed that we were stressed and decided to make the weather reflect our mood [I’m going with this theory because it’s supposed to be sunny and beautiful on Monday when our exam is over].

Day 25: Photos from the week, First Aid and preparing for the storm

Amanda Xi

Today’s series of inane images [I felt bad about the sporadic updates this week…so I reward you with many random pictures from my life!]:

[This was from last weekend.] I was in heaven in Duarte because there are like 5 donut places within a mile of Mike’s apartment. I’m not kidding. I guess that’s a good reason not to move out there… I’d be twice the size.

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Day 24: Everything, all at once

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane image of the day:

I am proud of how quickly I put together this board, and designed and ordered the t-shirts in time for tonight’s Women in Medicine event at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak.

Today was a blur of… seemingly everything all at once. Operating on < 9 hours of sleep in total for the last two nights [while some people seem to be able to function on 4-5 hours of sleep each night, I need at least 7 to feel okay] made it difficult to study for our mini-TBL today, let alone take it [good thing it was straightforward!]. We also had a quick AMWA meeting to discuss the Women in Medicine event in the evening before heading to a very long pathology lecture, followed by a rushed [and hushed] epidemiology lecture. Thankfully, our epidemiology lecture ended early and I did not have to speed like a madwoman from the OU campus to Royal Oak Beaumont.

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Day 20: Making this work

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane image of the day:

Even while on “vacation” in California, I need to keep up with studying! At least the sun makes every subject so much brighter and more fun to study [plus, it doesn’t hurt to have Mike around to keep me smiling!].

Greetings from the Starbucks in Duarte, California! You didn’t think I’d forget about you during my extended weekend, did you?

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