Month: July 2011

Roadtrip update: from Flagstaff, AZ

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane image of the day:

Mike and I decided to go for something not in the “fast food” category and settled on this cute place called Criollo Latin Kitchen — it was very tasty!
 
I’m going to save the OUWB Admitted Student Update post for later tonight when we get to Palm Springs — look out for it!
In my lifetime I have traveled to Chicago, New York City, Boston, middle-of-nowhere Massachusetts [read: Great Barrington], Costa Rica [for a wedding when I was pretty young], and China. While I went to Milwaukee for the MCW interview, I didn’t get a chance to explore the city, so I’m not counting that. Anyway, the point of this is that I am by no means the most well-traveled person, so this trip is really exciting to me.

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Roadtrip update: from Tulsa, OK

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane image of the day:

That’s a pink elephant… on the side of the road in Southern Illinois. Teehee.
After at least 15 hours in the car and 5 states later [2 of which, I’ve never been in until today!], I am exhausted. Thus, this update will be slightly lame.
The good news is that once we finally get to Palm Springs, I’ll have some time to provide a real update for everyone about my trip and the most recent OUWB Admitted Student Update [it was a jam packed one… with really exciting stuff!].
Time to pass out here in Tulsa… 

Quick update: handwriting

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane image of the day:

A card I received within a care package a couple of years ago from one of my dearest friends.

One thing that never fails to take my breath away is beautiful handwriting. As I was moving into my new place, I stumbled upon this gem from a couple of years ago and it reminded me of how much I love admiring elegant handwritten notes.
Thanks again [insert friend’s name] and Happy [early] Birthday! 

Looking back

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane image of the day:

Thanks for a great 3 years, LBME!
Today will probably be the last time I visit the Lurie Biomedical Engineering Building (LBME) [weird to put the “the” in there before LBME, since we never call it “the” LBME…] — it’s amazing to think about just how much time we spent in this building stressing over assignments/exams/Senior Design projects, cursing the blue printer for being jammed yet again or chatting about how much work we have to do. During the school year, you could smell the stress lingering in the air; now that it’s summer, it’s incredible how peaceful and clean everything is. The air smells and feels really fresh.
Good news today, I made some headway on analyzing my lab data from yesterday! Woohoo for progress!

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On moving, serial contingency planning, and uncertainty

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane image of the day:

My lab notebook. I’ve never been a fan of these “Composition Books,” because they always seem to fall apart on me. 
 
It’s incredible how you accumulate so much stuff in such a short period of time. I moved to Ann Arbor in September 2008 and in only 3 years, I think I might have more stuff stored in my tiny studio than I can fit into my car. Then again, I could just be terrible at packing…

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Imposter phenomenon

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane [except not so inane to me] image of the day:

I was greeted with this thoughtful sticky when I came in this morning — thank you!
 

From my image above, you may have deduced that today was my last day working as an Engineering Intern at Terumo Cardiovascular Systems (CVS). It has been an enlightening, interesting, learning and relatively fun experience. While I’ve complained a few too many times to Mike about an uncomfortable chair or tired eyes, I would not have traded this opportunity for anything else the summer before starting medical school. In the end, I will be enter the medical profession with the knowledge that there are incredible people behind the development and production of some of our most relied-upon medical devices. As physicians, we depend on them to innovate often and consistently produce quality products to keep our patients safe.

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Art fair woes and quick update

Amanda Xi
Today’s inane image of the day:
Sadly, the Ann Arbor Art Fair has prevented me from getting my favorite Starbucks beverage this morning — so I have settled for Caribou K-Cup Iced Coffee…
 
  1. REALLY long Ann Arbor Food/Dessert/Coffee/Tea Bucket-ish List post coming soon!
  2. Can someone please get me one of these beautiful new Macbook Airs?
  3. Follow me on Twitter. SERIOUSLY — it will be worth it.

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Too many disheartening things in a day

Amanda Xi

Today’s inane image of the day:

A must for coffeeshop studying: iPod and noise-canceling headphones.
 
Yesterday I stumbled upon a couple of things that really irked me. First, was actually the comments section of a NYTimes Well Blog post that referred to the recent article discussing the newly implemented use of the MMI style [“New for aspiring doctors, the people skills test“] at a couple of schools. Not to suggest that you should try to read the 9 pages of comments [I only got through around 6 pages before the quality of the comments began to decrease exponentially], but if you read a couple pages, you begin to hear a chorus of dissatisfaction.

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