Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope you all have enjoyed your holiday season thus far... and are getting excited for the last hurrah: New Year's Eve. I, for one, am pumped because Sis-T and I are throwing our annual NYE bash at our parents' house (aaand, I'm 28 years old and still throwing parties at my parents' house. nbd).

Speaking of holiday parties, one thing that I think we all get a little too much of during this time of the year is schmoozing. For me, the worst schmooze-night of the entire year is my parents' Holiday Open House. For hours on end, my siblings and I are trapped making small talk with a bunch of people we vaguely know/care about. We smile, nod, tell stories of school/work/etc. Overall, I'd say we're pretty charming (See, mom! You're lucky to have such charming children who entertain your guests).

This year, amidst the schmoozing/charming, something pretty fantastic happened: Sis-E struck up a conversation with someone she thought was a somewhat distant relative. This conversation wasn't run-of-the-mill small talk; this small talk was aggressive. Like, "Are you ready to be a grandpa" and "We're so proud that your son has gotten his act together" aggressive. I'm happy to say, Sis-T and I observed the whole thing, entirely confused as to how Sis-E knew this guy so well (we didn't recognize him at all).

Honestly, I'm not even sure how it happened, but the conversation lasted for a solid 5-10 minutes. At which point, Sis-E leaned over to me and Sis-T and asked, "that's our relative, right?" Sis-T and I looked at each other, laughed, and shook our heads "No!!"

"OMG," Sis-E responded, "This is so embarrassing, I've got to get out of here now!" She darted to the other end of the room and quickly started up a conversation with some people she definitely knew.

Oh! Poor Sis-E! What an embarrassing mistake! But it's the holidays, and these types of mix-ups happen all the time at parties.

I wish I could say that's the end of this story, but it gets better. Later in the evening, our mom was talking to the same man (it turns out they went to high school together) and he commented on how he was super worried about his seventeen year-old son. Apparently, some drama had recently gone down on his son's facebook wall regarding a pregnancy and he had just talked to my sister who confirmed the whole thing!! Now, he has to worry about all the other stuff she had mentioned, as well! The poor man was so distraught that he and his wife left the party soon after.

It wasn't until later in the evening when our entire family was recapping highlights of the party that both sides of the story were revealed (and for those of you who are worried about the son, my mom emailed his father right away to assure him that it was all a mix-up and that his son has not knocked a girl up or is partying too hard). Best party-foul EVER!

Let this be a lesson to you all: before schmoozing too hard at a party, make sure you know exactly who it is you're talking to.

In Class: Best Class Ever

Today we had the BEST CLASS EVER (possible overstatement, but I feel pretty confident about this one).

The class was about old people and their risk of falling and what that can mean for them and us. Not only was there a physician, a physical therapist, and an occupational therapist (who goes by "The Magnificent"), there were 5 adorable seniors there to share their experiences with us. You guys, I'm mostly interested in working with younger patient populations (specifically pregnant ladies and their fetuses/babies... can't get much younger than that!), but I have to say it: old people can be pretty darn cute.

But the old people were only a small part of why today's class was the best ever. The real reason was that we had the lecture in Tamkin, the first year lecture hall. You see, in med school, we sit in lecture for hours at a time and rather than changing classrooms for each class/topic, we stay put and the lecturers come to us. The first years have all of their classes in Tamkin, while the MS2s "graduate" to Nelson (at first, I thought this was a downgrade, but now I'm not so sure).

As creatures of habit, people established where in the auditorium they sat early on during first year. Since I know you're wondering, I was a left-side front person (There's a lot of Left Side pride in our class; we even made up a dance during last year's retreat... and then got everyone to do it again at this year's retreat). Where you sit in lecture is serious business and if someone ever changed things up and sat in your spot, it could throw off your whole day (I remember this happened once and I literally just stood there blankly for a few minutes, unable to respond appropriately).

Anyway, for whatever reason, when our whole class returned to Tamkin today there was an air of total excitement/joy. Everyone went to their old seats for "old time's sake" and we were all really happy about it. Like kind of weirdly/pathetically happy about it. Is this what our lives have become? Are we so deprived of fun times that the highlight of our day/week/month is a return to last year's lecture hall and sitting in our old seats?

I don't know. Actually, I don't even really care. All I know is that today I showed up to class expecting an average lecture about the "Functional Status Exam." Instead I got a lecture about falling with cute old people, hilarious student demos on falling and taking your sweaty socks off, and a functional reach competition. This was all taught to me by The Magnificent while I basked in the glory of sitting in my MS1 seat. Like I said before, BEST CLASS EVER.

Romance! (or not)

Remember when LAMe! used to be super fun and I would blog about my exciting life as a single twenty-something?* I know, LAMe! has been a little lacking in the romance department lately. It's just that my life has been mostly romance-free (damn you, med school!) or I haven't wanted to write anything that could potentially be traced back to people you know (once again, damn you med school!).

Well you guys, you're in for a treat! Recently some events have taken place that are just too ridiculous for me not to blog about.

I guess I'll start at the beginning. I met this guy through my roommate and after a few (like a couple of months) friendly hang-out sessions, we went on a "date." The date went... well, it was kind of weird. First of all, we ate dinner at Chick-fil-A and HE DIDN'T PAY. Umm. Chick-fil-A?! And he didn't pay?! This threw me off a little, mostly because there was no possible way we weren't on a date and paying is pretty much part of my definition of a date. Like, if you're ever confused about if you accidently went on a date with someone, you think back to if he paid or not and there's your answer (this isn't always true, like if you're clearly with friends who happen to be guys and they pay, this does not mean you're on a date). Whatever, the Chick-fil-A situation was kind of a minor detail and I didn't really care, because it was pretty much hilarious to me. (You guys! Chick-fil-A!!!)

After dinner, the plan was to go up in the big orange balloon at the Orange County Great Park. This is actually a pretty cute date idea. Unfortunately, it was a Wednesday and the Great Park was closed (wah wah). Luckily, he was thinking on his feet and he said, "Since we couldn't go up in the balloon, I'm going to take you to the Top of the World instead." Totally cute. Oh, and for those of you not in the know, the Top of the World Park is in Laguna Beach and has beautiful panoramic views of both the coastline and Irvine. Oh, and it's a total make-out spot.

So there we were, taking in the views (it was a crystal clear night), gazing at the stars, and NOT MAKING OUT. After a lovely time at the Top of the World, we're heading down the hill back to Laguna when we see these crazy looking boats... so of course, we go to the beach. Where the waves are gently crashing and the stars are bright and we're still not making out. Later, we go back to his place where we continue to not make out.

That's cool. It's technically a first date. No need to rush into these things. Fine. I'll admit it: I'm pretty awkward and I'm not super touchy-feely and I pretty much never make the first move. But still! Here's a tip for all of you "shy guys" out there: if a girl is a super busy med student and she spends like 4 hours with you (the week before an exam) and you weren't "friends" before, she's probably into you and you can probably make a move without any risk of getting rejected. It's not a guarantee, but a pretty safe bet.

Even though the first date was kind of weird and we didn't make out, I still had a pretty good time. Naturally, we went on a second date. To Wahoo's. And he didn't pay for me. HA! This mostly made me laugh because my roommates and I had just spent a week making Chick-fil-A jokes and now we'll be able to add Wahoo's to the material. Then we made our was back out to the balloon and it was CLOSED AGAIN!! Again, this is hilarious (of course it was closed!!). And so, of course we didn't make out. We then went back to my place to watch CSI with my roommate and after she went to bed we hung out for like another hour on the couch... without making out. In his defense, he did say he "had a sore throat" and "didn't want to get me sick." Fair enough.

Up to this point, I was feeling so-so about the situation. I did have a good time with this guy. But is it in a romantic way or a "just-friends" way?

Which brings me to last night. Last night my roommate and I were supposed to go to see It's a Wonderful Life with him at the Lido Theater, which is the really cool "old-school" theater in Newport. My roommate came home like 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave and says, "Did he call you?! Because I was just hanging out with his ex-girlfriend and she invited herself to the movie and she's coming too!" WHAT?! So the four of us went to the movie and it was kind of awkward, but mostly because it felt like my roommate and I were crashing their date.

My interpretation of the "ex-girlfriend group date" is that it's a pretty clear sign that he's not that into me. Right? My roommate insists that he's told her he's interested. So, um. Is he just a total pussy (won't make the first move, let's his bitchy ex invite herself to the movies, etc)? Total confusion!

So here are my thoughts: Sorry, buddy. I'm pretty busy and don't have the time or energy to eat Chick-fil-A, not make out in really romantic places, and watch classic movies with you and your ex-girlfriend for hours on end (in any order/combination).

There you have it. I hope that this is enough romance to hold you guys over for a while. And to all of you potential suitors out there: no, I won't share the details of our dates with all of LAMe! Nation (HA!!!). Unless you act like a retard. Then I will.

*Okay, you probably don't, since that was a long time ago (before med school). If you have some time to kill, here are some classics: Elite Status!!, check all that apply, and How to pick up boys (this can barely be considered "classic," but it has some great tips on how to pick up boys, so I included it).

In Class: Flushing

Hi friends. It has recently been brought to my attention that we have a serious problem on campus: the toilets in the Medical Education Building do not flush very well. Well, to be honest, they barely flush at all. Every time I go into the bathroom, there are remnants of toilet paper (and more!) left behind, floating in the bowl.

My favorite part of this whole issue is that Med Ed is a brand new building and pretty high-tech (I'm pretty sure the entire building is wired to record our every move... and we could probably do telemedicine from the restrooms - just don't expect us to flush). But seriously. The toilets even have two separate buttons for "efficient" flushing: one for "number 1" and another for "number 2." I think it's an attempt to go green or something. Great thinking, Med Ed Building Designers! If only the toilets could flush all of their contents in the first place.

Another great feature is that the toilets usually flush for you (making the button choices obsolete). But how do they know if it's number 1 or 2?! One of my classmates suggested that it's based on the time you're sitting on the toilet. Maybe. But this was countered by the fact that girls really don't take that long to poop (we, unlike boys, come to the toilet ready to go, do our business, and are gone... no need to make an event of it). Again, Designers, clever thinking... if the flushes got the job done!

The real root of the problem seems to be the flushing power of the toilets. It doesn't matter if you press number 1 or number 2, or if the sensor guesses what's gone down based on the time you've sat on the toilet. If the toilets don't have enough flushing power, they're never going to flush everything away and we'll forever be stuck with a gross reminder of Med Ed's toilet technology failure.

So where do we go from here? Will we ever see the day where the Med Ed toilets flush completely? I propose we make a survey on how to improve the toilet flushing situation and then discuss its results at Dean's Hour. Who's with me?

I Can Do Anything Good

So I know I should be studying for the big combined exam we have on Monday, but I just came across the MOST AMAZING THING I'VE EVER SEEN (possible overstatement).

After watching this video (twice in the last 5 minutes), I truly feel that I can do anything good... like pass my exam(s) on Monday.

Thanks to S for posting this!

In Class: Printing

You guys. I have to bitch about something: I effing hate printing stuff out for med school. And I have to do it daily. For no reason at all, it is the most stressful thing EVER.

Actually, that's a lie. There are plenty of reasons why it's stressful. First of all, there are only 3 working computers in the Medical Education Building where we do our printing. WTF?! So first off, you have to hope to get a computer to even start the printing process. Lame.

Once you finally go through like 4 windows on Internet Explorer (because for whatever reason, Merlin doesn't pop up first thing) and FINALLY print out the powerpoint/core notes/whatever, you have to walk out of the room to check the printer to see if everything came out okay. Usually, there's some form of drama like a paper jam or "the stapler is broken and everything has been canceled." Or my favorite from the other day: someone decided to print a 100+ page PDF cookbook that paused for 30 seconds between each page. Really?!

You can't even claim victory over the printing process once your stuff has come out. Well, first you have you find what you printed. You may think this would be easy since most things come with labeled cover pages, but it is still surprisingly difficult with the volume of printing going on in MedEd. Plus people steal stuff (A message to you, whoever you are: I will find you and hunt you down and you'll be sorry!! Okay, probably not, but still. It's not cool).

When FINALLY you get your printouts, there's always a chance of discovering a mistaken formatting error. Like accidently printing 1 slide per page of a 78 slide powerpoint presentation. Or worse: printing 24 slides per page (so, so tiny). Oh the agony you go through when this happens! You've come so far only to find that rather than a nice printout of a powerpoint presentation (I personally prefer 4 slides/page), you have papers covered with microscopic text about who knows what. Time to return to the computers to start the process again!

Oh, and usually, we're all crunched for time because this is all taking place during our 5 minute break between classes and we couldn't print before because the professor just posted his slides. TOTAL STRESS! Just the other day, I saw a classmate freak out in frustration, yelling and kicking at the printer. Like actually kicking the machine. To some, this may seem like the act of a stressed out med student, but honestly, anyone would snap if they had to deal with that printer on a daily basis. Or ever.

YouTube

Have any of you guys ever heard of a www.YouTube.com? It's this website where people can upload, share, and view videos. And it's AWESOME.

Okay, yeah. I know. YouTube was invented a while ago (actually, according to wikipedia:YouTube, it was created in Spring of 2005, which is also when I graduated from college. This is totally depressing because I can't imagine a world before YouTube, yet I'm unwilling to fully come to terms with the fact that I've been out of college for so long).

Anyway, lately, I've become completely obsessed with it. As in, I can't get enough of it. Like, the first thing I do when I get home is check it for new videos... or, let's be honest, watch the same Oldies but Goodies over and over and over again. Throughout the day, I walk around thinking of my favorite clips, sometimes singing outloud and/or acting them out... in public. Really, YouTube might be the only thing that makes me happy in my sad, pathetic, med school-filled life.

Here are some additional signs that I might have a YouTube problem:

• Instead of actually talking to people I haven't seen in a while (relatives, old friends, etc.), we just get out a computer and spend hours watching different videos.
• Sis-T has made the Bed Intruder Song the ringtone for when I call her:

• I'm going to dress up as 4 year-old in pj's for Halloween, because I just love Jessica's "Daily Affirmation" video so much (sure, this costume is random and will be completely unrecognizable/not funny to like 97% of the people I run into, but I still love it so much):

• I've convinced my friends to also dress up as YouTube characters for Halloween... and they're GOING TO DO IT*.

I guess things could be worse. Right now, most of these activities still involve social interaction. I mean, it's not my fault Sis-T also happens to love the Bed Intruder Song. Or that my friends were lacking costume ideas. Or that other people also seem to love watching and talking about their favorite videos... for hours at a time.

Oh, and just so you know, this is the video that finally sent me over the edge and convinced me to blog about my love for YouTube:

Are you kidding me?! It's a BIRD! Dancing to a ridiculous song written by a 9 year-old!!! OMG I love it.

*In case you were wondering: they're going to be Keyboard Cat and Zombie Turtle Kid.

Roommate Found!

About a month ago, one of my roommates, H, declared that she was leaving our adorable CDM beach house for the joys of an Irvine Company Apartment. Lame! (Okay, fine. She's moving in with her boyfriend... this is exciting, blah blah blah).

This left my other roommate, J, and I with the task of finding a new roommate. At first, we thought this would be relatively easy; our house is super cute, clean, in a great location, and most importantly, affordable. We posted an ad on Craigslist and braced ourselves with the seemingly inevitable deluge of emails from interested prospective roommates.

So maybe we were a little over-confident. After about a week, we had only received two emails. The first one sounded bitchy: "Send me pictures of the room and maybe I'll reply with information about myself." I instantly hated her. But the second one sounded PERFECT! So we met and J and I loved her and everything was going to work out just great... until she emailed us a couple of days later saying she wasn't going to move out of her place after all. Thanks a lot, Tease.

A few rounds of Craigslist posts later, we had a meeting set up with Sierra. "Oh great! I love the name Sierra," said J, enthusiastically. "I bet she's super hippy and crunchy." (J is from Laguna Beach and while she herself is more "oatmeal," she has many granola friends).

"Really?" I replied, "Sierra sounds like a stripper name to me." A couple minutes later, the doorbell rang and Sierra did not disappoint: she had fake boobs, lips, hair, tan... everything including a raspy voice. She was totally a stripper. Sorry, but we're oatmeal and a med student, not strippers.

We changed tacks and started posting on Roommates.com as well as Craigslist (roommates.com, btw, is pretty fun and feels like an online dating site... but for roommates!). No luck. One girl was uber awkward and couldn't answer the even the simplest questions. For example, What's your name? "Well, you see... umm... it's kinda weird... but, uh... my name is E." Are you kidding me?! Another woman was a little older, super loud, and was moving to "pay down her debts." Here's a tip for people looking to rent a room from someone: Don't tell your potential housemates that you're in debt. You're pretty much guaranteed to not find housing. We even had a girl from England email us saying that she was going to immigrate... to our house (I should probably email her back saying no thanks... whoops).

In the end, I ended up taking the advice of my guy friends who would ask, "Is she hot?" after every single meeting with a prospective roommate. Our new roommate, B, is totally hot! But also, she seems really nice and friendly and, most importantly, normal.

Teach me how to Dougie

Last weekend at retreat something really awkward happened to me. In fact, it was so embarrassing that I've waited over a week to share it with you guys.

I was at a party in someone's hotel room when "Teach Me How To Dougie" came on and EVERYONE in the room started to aggressively do The Dougie. Except for me. Because I had never heard the song before (and so obviously knowing the dance was out of the question). I was so stunned/caught off guard that I kind of just froze (and/or blacked out... I'm still not entirely sure).

Finally, I came to and asked some kid what the song was. "You've never heard this?!" He kind of laughed. (OMG, I thought, I'm officially old and totally out of touch).

"Wait," I said, "When did this come out? Over the summer?" I was desperate at this point to prove that I'm not that socially retarded after all... I'd been out of the country for 2 months and pretty much away from all forms of media (If you remember, I didn't even know about those effing iPads!!).

"Uh, yeah sure." (The real answer: no).

"Oh thank god," I replied. "You see, I was out of the country... I didn't hear any new music." (such desperation!! As if he cared about my lame excuse).

He kind of nodded, rolled his eyes a little, and Dougied away from me.

OMG, you guys!! It was mortifying! And so, so weird! Imagine an entire room of people breaking out in song and dance and you being completely out of the loop. It was awful.

For those of you still out of the loop (suckers!), here's the link to the YouTube video (sorry, couldn't embed it).

And for those of you who need a more family-friendly lesson on how to Dougie, here are some kids from Glee walking you through the dance. (GLEE, you guys!!)

Twitter Revival

Remember back in March of 2009 when I blogged about how I was obsessed with Twitter? Well, I'm happy to say that about a year and a half later it's finally catching on with my friends! (Also, who knew I'm such an early adopter with stuff on the internet? 1.5 years?! Come on people!!)

Well it turns out that Twitter is just as good 1.5 years later. Especially when you tweet back and forth with people all day... while you're in the same room.

But seriously. It's pretty fun.

I'm @sassyjax in case you are looking for someone to follow (ha! I love that I just wrote that.)

Okay fine. And a shout out to @jsharib and @RobiMaamari for the new twitter revival. And to @jtRUNTzer for proving even old people can tweet.

MS2

Okay everyone. I've been feeling some pressure to blog, which I totally get, since LAMe! is so awesome. But the thing is that my second year of med school (aka MS2) started last week. I think you all know what that means: My super sweet and exciting summer life has disappeared and now I'm back to my boring med student life.

Some of you (like all 3 of LAMe's followers) may remember that last year I experienced a little bit of writer's block as a result of MS1. This mostly had to do with the fact that all I ever thought about was school (boring) and boys (embarrassing). Umm... not that much has changed since last year.

So anyway, I need some help coming up with topics. Feel free to comment with requests or ideas and maybe this will help keep LAMe! alive during grueling MS2 (please!).

In case you need some help, I will provide examples of good, bad, and mediocre ideas for LAMe!

Good:

• MS2, KW, is awesome.
• S's lost pink waterbottle.
• Okay, so I can't really think of any right now (hence this post)

Mediocre:

• My new haircut
• Nelson Auditorium vs Tamkin Hall

Bad:

• Big Robbins vs Medium Robbins (even though this is such a hot topic)
• Preparing for USMLE Step 1

Okay, so I think (hope) you get the idea! Also, remember I love all things that have to do with dating and ridiculousness (though "Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple" does not count as ridiculousness), but please be nice (we're not trying to ruin lives here).

So... umm... comment away!!

I'm back!!

Okay guys, I'm back!! I know. You were all super worried about how I've been out of the country for super long and wondered if I would ever make it home. Well good news: I made it! After 27 hours of traveling from Europe and a wedding in San Luis Obispo, I'm back in the OC. Phew! That was a close one :)

It turns out A LOT has happened while I was away and since I was pretty much out of touch, I had NO IDEA it was all going down. This led to many shocking surprises upon my return, followed by many "You didn't hear about that?!" comments after.

Here are some things that happened:

1) The MS1's got free iPads. Okay, yeah, so my reaction is a little late, but WTF?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I couldn't contain my disbelief/mask my reaction appropriately when I first heard this news (which of course came from a group of my classmates who had all heard when it was actually going down). To be honest, I'm still having a hard time dealing with this. And yeah, it stung a little when a random business professor from UCI asked me and K how we liked our iPads while we were preparing our Honduras poster as Starbiz earlier today. Whatever. I chose My Precious (Kindle, for those of you not in the know) over an iPad earlier this summer, so those MS1's with their free iPads can suck it. That's right. You heard me.

2) There was a Salmonella outbreak. "How random that you got Salmonella," I said to classmate, J, earlier this week, "I mean, who even gets that?!" "You didn't hear?" She said, "Actually there was a national outbreak and they're recalling a bunch of eggs." Oh. My bad. Sorry I didn't keep up with the Salmonella Outbreak News while I was abroad.

3) Quizno's has a new commercial with cute little kitties in it.

Both of my roommates felt the need to tell me FIRST THING about this commercial that "reminded them of me." Ummm... thanks?

But even better, while I was looking up the video just now, I found a video called "Quiznos Kittens Turbo Techno Jam!!!" AWESOME!! I see that I've missed a lot while I've been away. (Also, I would like to add that this is not the first time I've blogged about a Quiznos commercial. I hope you all remember the classic, "Toasty Torpedo" commercial).

4) Actually, that's all that I can think of right now. But seriously, free iPads?!

Torture on the TGV

OMG you guys. I've been stuck on the TGV from Dijon to Lausanne (Switzerland) for the past hour and a half. Cool! You must be thinking; TGV's are sweet! Well, they are sweet. Unless you are stuck behind a disgustingly intellectual British couple who feel the need to read poetry out loud to each other in their annoying british accents. In between lines of a poem, they will kiss and then discuss punctuation. "You know, a comma in this decade can be interpreted so differently from last decade." *kiss kiss*

Are you kidding me?! I think I'm going to be sick.

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100 k!

Yesterday we did a 100 k ride (actually, it was 103 k) from Nolay to Cluny. We celebrated with a pizza feast afterwards.

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Continental Divide

Yesterday we had a super intense/awesome day. We concluded out first week in Burgundy by cycling 90 k and crossing the continental divide. We also stopped at a local swimming pool along the way (super random but perfect because it was such a beautiful day). We ended up spending over 2 hours at the pool where we picnicked, swam, and lounged in the sun. We even rented an inner tube to float on which mostly ended with N and I trying to get in a relaxing position while guide L did cannon balls next to us. "Best euro I ever spent" says L. Agreed. Oh and after the pool we climbed a mountain (it actually wasn't that bad since it was so steep at parts that we had to walk).

We spent the morning in Dijon and now we're at some hotel chateau place just outside. Yay!

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I'm on a bike!

Yeah, I know. I haven't been updating this very much. Sorry. The thing is I've been pretty busy lounging around French hotel rooms in fuzzy pink robes. No time for blogging, suckers! Oh wait. No. But I have been busy riding around the French countryside enjoying the sights, the food, wine, and of course the café.

We just got back from a sick ride through the hilly Parc du Morvan. Not sure how many k we went because guide L gave me and N some suggestions of extra hills (this is because we are "athletic" which is a lie; N is athletic and I'm the fatass trying to recover from my first year of medical school). Maybe 70 k (about 42 miles) but it was ALL rolling hills! The scenery is super beautiful: it reminds me a lot of Northern CA with rolling hills of farmland with forests mixed in. We even saw some banana slugs on the road!

As for the past few days, here's a (super) brief recap:
Monday: cycled through the hills of Chablis. It was hot and I almost died (not true). N and I got a little lost and ended up off-roading through vineyards to get back to a main road. We also had a good photo shoot at a vista point overlooking the Chablis valley that involved me trying to set up the self-timer on my camera in a tree. In the town of Auxerre, we went to an amazing chocolatiere who sold all sorts of macaroons and caramels and icecream. Yum!
Tuesday: umm I don't remember where we went (sorry, no route sheet on me and I'm in bed and I'm tired). BUT! It was a super great ride complete with a photo shoot on rounds of hay and a picnic next to ruins of an old fort (pictured). We ended the day riding along the river.
Wednesday: we left our hotel in Cravant (of fuzzy robe fame) and made our way to Avallon. We stopped in Vezelay, which is on top of a hill (mountain: I had to walk my bike up and even then I was panting and out of breath). Vezelay also has a basilica with relics of Mary Magdalene (I'm just going to say it: relics are weird and most of the time I don't understand them or they are gross... like the time I saw some saint's hand (HAND!) in Budapest). The town was touristy but still very cute and reminded me of a lot of the hill towns in Provence.

Okay. Obviously there is tons more I could talk about, but as I said before I'm tired. And my hands are kinda falling asleep from holding my phone up in bed.

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Burgundy Biking Day 1

Hey guys! Today N and I started our cycling trip around the Burgundy region in France. This week it looks like we have a pretty good group. There are seven of us total: me and N (fellow polar bear), the A's (AN and AY) who are 30-something friends who met on a previous blue marble trip, the J's who are a newlywed couple on their honeymoon, and our guide L who I had last year for the provence trip. Overall we're a pretty young and lively group. The A's and L will be with us for the whole 2 weeks.

Okay. Unofficially our trip started last night with a pre-trip outing in Paris. We met up with L and the A's for a delicious meal at an old Brasserie (over 130 years old). We had typical French / Alsacian cuisine; my meal included a rabbit terrine and choucroute, a delicious sauerkraut with many pork products. After dinner we hit the bars and ended up at a random club in Northeast Paris. The music was mostly techno (boo) but that didn't stop L from boogying down. We met some special French characters who didn't hesitate to show off their "moves." N and I ended the night with a 1/2 hour walk home across Paris and weren't in bed until 3:30am.

Good thing we had to get up early to start our bike trip! We met up at the blue marble office and rode our bikes through Paris to the train station. Highlight of riding through Paris: we rode around the Bastille! (N: "just like on the Tour!"). Our train took us out to Laroche (Northern Burgundy) where we started our trip.

Today was a pretty easy day (only about 40 k and pretty much flat). We spent most of the ride along the Canal du Nivernais which was very serene. We were all so tired from the night before that we all stopped at a park along the canal and napped... Then jumped in the river for a quick dip.

Tonight we're staying in Cravant (church outside our hotel pictured). Our room is super cute! N and I even got matching pink robes! The hotel has a restaurant which was delicious: dinner included potato crusted vegetable puree, gespacho, salmon tartar, trout with lobster gelly, chocolate flan, and strawberry million layer cake. Of course dinner was accompanied by Chablis, which is the wine of the region. Now I'm stuffed, laying in bed with a food coma combined with a day of riding and 3.5 hours of sleep the night before. Time for bed! We have Chablis and hills tomorrow!

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Relaxing in Paris

Just chilling in Jardin du Luxembourg, reading my book. Live music is playing in the distance. I sat at a cafe and enjoyed an espresso earlier today.

Yesterday I rested up during the day (my flight ended up being over five hours late). Last night, F and I went to an Italian place for dinner and caught up. Sadly, he leaves for the south of France tonight and I'll have to hang out at his place alone until N arrives on Saturday. Somehow, I think I'll survive.

My life is so hard and filled with challenges. :)

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My Precious

OMG you guys! I'm blogging from my Kindle (aka My Precious... yeah, I know. It's a little creepy). I just discovered that my precious has internet!!

Here's how the discovery went down: I'm sitting at the Chicago airport waiting for my flight to Paris (I'm a little out of control and thought it would be a good idea to fly to Paris 2 days after returning from Honduras) and I'm reading "The Girl Who Played With Fire" on my precious. For whatever reason, I decided to turn the wireless on (okay, "for whatever reason" is a lie; I turned wireless on to change the name of my kindle to "J's precious"). Anyway, I turned on wireless and voila: kindles now have experimental internet! AND they have a bunch of of fun sites bookmarked already! FUN! Blogging on my Precious is a little slow so I'll probably stick to my BB. Still fun though.

OMG. Update on my flight, which has been delayed for almost 4 hours: another plane has arrived for us (we had to get off the first one becuase it was broken) but we can't get on it becuase there was a problem when they were dumping the lavatories from the previous flight and it spilled on the runway. We can't get on until they figure out the plumbing issue. At least I took a pill to help me sleep 3 hours ago and am trying not to pass out at the gate. Sweet!

Ups and Downs

My last week in Honduras has already had a couple of ups and downs. First of all, my teacher for the week is fabulous which really motivates me to go to class and really try to learn Spanish. I definitely think my skills are improving (well let's hope so since I started pretty much at baseline).

Yesterday we went on a canopy tour. Ziplining is so fun! The weather was super clear yesterday and from a few of the lines we had a stunning view of the bay islands (cayos cochinos, Roatan, and Utila).

The place we went ziplining also had some hot springs and so after flying through the forest, we got to relax in the springs. It has been super hot lately and at first the thought of getting into hot water was not appealing. The pool where we went was nicely shaded and actually had two sources of water - regular cool creek water and the hot springs. This provided for a perfect combination of hot and cold. To make things even more relaxing we all got mud scrubs (a woman rubbed mud all over our bodies and then we jumped back into the spring after it dried) and fresh aloe on our faces. We spent a solid two hours just chilling in the water. So nice! Oh and something I should add: this was maybe the fourth time any of us had been in warm water the entire trip and was possibly the cleanest I've felt in the past month (even though I was in a hot spring with mud rubbed all over me).

By the time we got back, I was exhausted and hungry. Yesterday's food was kind of lacking: for lunch, we had pork rinds on a bed of yuca (like potatoes) and cabbage. I did not eat the pork and the rest of the lunch was straight up disgusting. For dinner we had grilled white bread with American cheese, mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup (according to our host mom, the ketchup in Honduras is super special). Just thinking of yesterday's meals makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Which leads me to my next order of business: I'm sick. I woke up the morning with a fever, aches and pains, and an upset stomach. At first I thought it was just the heat and being out of shape from ziplining so I got up and went to school. I only lasted about 1/2 an hour when I wandered home, turned on my industrial strength fan and passed out for 4 hours. I woke up feeling just as badly and decided I needed to see a doctor. Okay. It was just me who thought this: right now, there's an epidemic of Dengue Fever in Honduras and everyone is obsessed with it. Dengue is transmitted through mosquitoes and the symptoms are basically a bad flu (with some fun additions of retroorbital pain and an occasional rash: I had no eye pain but did have a rash from horseback riding in Copan). So what I'm saying is everyone thought I may have had Dengue so everyone was quick to take me to the hospital.

Rather than going to the public hospital where we had been shadowing for the past couple of weeks, I went to a private hospital, which is specifically for employees of the Standard Fruit Company (Dole). The contrast between the two places was striking. First of all, the private hospital looked like a hotel. We walked into the Emergency department and was seen by a doctor within 5 minutes. Compare this with the crowds of people waiting hours to see a doctor who shares his room with another MD and her patients.

My interview was kind of special since it was in Spanish and things got even more exciting when the nurse pantomimed to me that I needed to provide a sample of "poopoo." I had seen the doctor, given blood and poopoo samples, and got the test results within about an hour. All in all, with meds, it cost me about $75. Oh and it turns out I have a rotavirus (not Dengue!) and possibly some kind of bacterial infection.

In the waiting room at the ER K and S met a cute Honduran couple who gave us some tips of places to go in La Ceiba. We followed their suggestions and went to an awesome cafe right by the public hospital. The cafe was heaven: just the right AC, yummy food (not that I ate any of it) and a full library of books for exchange (I may have taken a little nap in the library at one point). We spent the whole afternoon there which was very relaxing. Now, I'm ready for bed even though it's only 8:30 or so. Big day!

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Yup, still cute.

Okay. Little V has only gotten cuter during my stay and I can't take it anymore. Here are some more pics (S and I have decided that she's not very photogenic; she's much cuter in person). Oh. And now she calls my name ("yackie") whenever I enter the house and waves/says "Adios" in her cute 2-year old voice whenever I leave the room. Like I said before, her cuteness is almost unbearable and possibly a little freakish (I mean, how can one person be consistently cute all the time?!).

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banana split! (and Copan)

After 3 weeks of pining after banana splits at DD (which also has a Baskin Robbins in it) K, S, and I decided to take the plunge and get one. Sadly they only had tiny bananas and ran out of whipped cream 1/3 the way through. Boo! Above is a picture of our extreme disappointment (maybe an exaggeration) at our "banana split." Also, I'm totally aware that I'm talking about splurging on a banana split directly after I posted about being a fatty. Heehee.

Oh wait! I went to Copan this weekend! For those of you who don't know, Copan was an ancient Mayan city. It took us about 7 hours on a mini bus filled with Honduran teenagers to get to Copan from La Ceiba. Copan is only 11K from Guatemala so we got to see a lot of the Honduran countryside. Honduras is beautiful! It is very green with rolling hills. We passed various farms (bananas, corn, etc) with lots of cows... This was particularly exciting because a girl in our group is afraid of cows and kind of freaks out when she sees them (she thinks they're going to run after her and bite her arm). The roads are pretty bad (many rockslides and annoying speedbumps). There is also a fairly liberal passing policy on the roads here. Basically, it's perfectly acceptable for a minibus to pass a car on 1 lane curvy road with oncoming traffic.

The town of Copan is super cute. It's a little bit touristy and has a slight hippy feel to it. It seemed a lot cleaner than La Ceiba though there were more stray dogs roaming around. There also a bunch of tiny red minicabs (think covered tricycle motorbikes... I think they're little deathmobiles) racing around the cobblestone streets. There were a bunch of cute street vendors and cafes.

On Friday, after we arrived from La Ceiba, we grabbed lunch and explored the town. The next morning, we woke up early to go see the ruins. As some of you may remember, I was an anthropology major and took a Mesoamerican Civilizations class my sophomore year (thanks, Shawdog...). So what I'm saying is: like 8 years ago I knew something about the Mayans. And so walking around the Copan ruins was pretty exciting! The size and complexity of the structures were very impressive and we were even able to go in archaeological tunnels to see older ruins (each king would build a new city on top of the old one to signify his power).

After a full morning of ruins exploration, our group went horseback riding (don't worry I loaded up on allergy meds before the ride). Of course, my horse was the smallest and didn't want to move. I brought up the rear in true LRC fashion. Oh and not one but two horses decided to bite my legs (so random, I know). Halfway through the ride it started pouring down rain and we took shelter near an indigenous Mayan school where there were a bunch of cute kids trying to sell us handmade cornhusk dolls (I declined... sorry mom).

Our ride back to La Ceiba was treacherous and I wanted to kill myself because the highschool kids thought it would be fun to sing along to the bus driver's weird techno music and play clapping games. So so special. Anyway I'm exhausted now and it's almost time for bed (or last week of classes starts tomorrow!).

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Somos Gordas

Okay. I'm just going to say it: the food in Honduras isn't very healthy. For breakfast, S and I (who live at the same house) have coffee and a cookie. The coffee here is super yummy even though it is instant. We add powdered milk (the remaining clumps of undissolved milk took a little getting used to) and sugar. Sometimes I'll add a banana if I'm feeling ambitious though this can be risky because Hondurans seem to prefer their bananas über ripe and sometimes I can't handle it.

After the morning's activities, we return home for a big lunch. Lunch almost always includes some form of fried plantains and rice and beans. Usually we have meat, too. It's definitely the biggest meal of the day and is a little heavy for my taste... especially in the heat.

Dinner is pretty small. We usually have baleadas (beans and cheese in a flour tortilla), pastelitos (fried dough filled with rice, beans and sometimes meat), or quesadillas on handmade corn tortillas. This may sound like a lot but each of these is served in appetizer sized portions.

Okay. You're probably thinking "wow, J! Thanks so much for that boring glimpse of your daily life. I don't care what you eat." To this I say: true, but I promise this is going somewhere.

During meals, our crazy host mother, G, sits with us and usually tells us about her menopause medications (they're all natural and she takes them twice a day and they're very expensive). When she's not talking about menopause, or the heat (another daily topic, which is shocking because it is almost always hot in Honduras), she likes to tell us that we're fat. "Oh! Que gordas!"

Last night we were super gordas because we asked for seconds at dinner: in total we had about the equivalent of a 6-inch subway sandwich with a light layer of beans and sour cream in it = not that much. After dinner, S and I were chilling in my room when G decided to come in and called us fatties again (okay, this time I may have been sprawled out on the bed like an obese person in a food coma after turkey day). She then convinced us to go for an evening stroll around the neighborhood. It sounded simple enough and the night was cool so we agreed.

The walk started off as expected. We went to a local bodega and checked out some of the local goods. Next thing we knew, we were getting into a truck with one of G's friends, cruising the streets of La Ceiba. Umm WHAT?! Good thing S and I had 1) no money 2) no ID and 3) no idea where we were. The first stop was the beach where a bunch of locals were chillin and kids were playing in the water. "Don't go in there!" G yelled at some child running towards the water, "there's poopoo in there!" hmmm. I'm also pretty sure it was the beach that the school director told us to avoid going to after dark because that's where "drug addicts inject and sniff drugs." sweet!

G and friend (who was a dude) clearly wanted to get a drink somewhere so we got back in the truck and drove to another beach on the other side of town. The bar was right on the beach and consisted of tables under a big tent. Patrick Swayze's "She's like the wind" was playing (yesss). Even though S and I had to be up early (5am departure the next morning) for a trip to Copan, we were persuaded to have a beer. As random as it was, the beach bar was pretty cool. We watched a crazy rain storm with lightening over the ocean and then walked along the beach. While S and I tried to avoid the crabs scuttling across the sand (and our feet), G (who is married) was making out with her friend (obviously). When we returned to the bar the friend ordered us more beer (twist our arms). Then, he unexpectedly got up, ordered us more beer, and said he'd be back in a bit. So now, S and I were stranded at some random beach bar, a little buzzed, with our crazy host mom.

Luckily the friend returned after about 45 minutes and we headed back to our neighborhood, Colonia El Sauce. Finally! We thought. (we still had to pack for our early morning trip). Wrong! Instead of going home, we stopped at the friend's store where some people were sitting out front drinking beers. More beer appeared in front of us (which we tried to refuse, which didn't work). So we sat around, joking with G: she made fun of my fat legs and S's big butt (she's a "chine especial" even though she's Korean) and we mostly laughed awkwardly. G spit some beer in S's face (accidentally, of course). Finally, we decided to walk home. Our short evening stroll, which began at 7 came to an end around midnight. At least we made it home alive!

I thought the excitement was over for the night when I heard S screaming from the other room: a cockroach! After an epic battle involving folded papers, a broom and lots of DEET, we prevailed and S could sleep the 3.5 hours we had before leaving for Copan in peace.

Yup. Just a typical night in Honduras. And it all started because S and I are gordas.

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I can only guess...

Heyhey! Sorry for the lack of blogging. It turns out that going to the hospital for 4 hours every day followed by 4 hours of 1:1 spanish classes is kind of hard work/tiring. Plus I've been really into my book (girl with the dragon tattoo). Oh and I'm lazy. Anyway, here's an update on what's going on here in Honduras:

Last weekend we took a trip to Cayos Cochinos which is a group of small islands off the coast. We took a small boat over there and then cruised around the islands. The islands look like the stereotypical tropical paradise with white sand beaches, palm trees, and crystal clear turquoise water. We stopped a couple of times to snorkel - there is a huge barrier reef off the coast of Honduras and so the diving and snorkeling is really good here.

Everyone had warned us to be careful about the sun because everyone gets sunburned on the trip, so I planned ahead and bought a longsleeved shirt to wear snorkeling (as we all know, I'm like a vampire and can't be out in the sun for very long/ever). At the mall in La Ceiba (which is strangely similar to malls back in the states... Including the prices) K, S, and I searched everywhere for a longsleeved shirt. Just when we were about to give up (there were literally zero longsleeved shirts at the mall... Maybe because it's ridiculously hot here), I came across a gem: a mint green shirt with the phrase "I can only guess where I'll be tomorrow" in SEQUINS!! Obviously I bought it and wore it snorkeling (and I'm proud to say that I didn't get burned). S and K also got them in different colors and we're looking forward to debuting them back at school (test days? Poster presentations during retreat? I can only guess...).

On Monday we started going to the public hospital in La Ceiba. We split our time between the emergency department (which is more like urgent care) and labor and delivery (which is more like a baby factory). The hospital has very little supplies and uses hardly any technology. I found the lack of technology particularly interesting because the doctors totally manage without it; I kind of think it makes them better doctors. In L&D they do everything by hand (finding/counting fetal heartrates, determining the position of the fetuses, counting contractions, etc.) some of which we would never learn to do in the US because we wouldn't need to.

In general L&D is crazy. The women receive no pain meds and have to walk themselves over to the delivery bed. The entire process is completely solitary: the woman has to labor alone (no family allowed) and there is nobody giving them support while they're delivering. The doctors barely even talk to the women or fill them in on what's going on.

Okay. Enough about the hospital for now. I'm actually on the island of Roatan right now (my view while writing this is pictured) and I think it's time to enjoy the beach.

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V Pequeña

By popular demand here is a pic of the adorable Little V, the 18 month old granddaughter in our house. (also in the pic are S and K).

Ok no time to talk. We're out the door to get to a fiesta at school. Yay!

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estoy feliz

Hola! Ok I'll cut to the chase: I'm at dunkin donuts you guys!! In Honduras! Can you believe it? I effing love DD and they don't have it in California. It turns out I just needed to go to Honduras to get my DD fix. And the best part is they have AC AND free wifi! Sweet! I know I've said this before but it's hot here and AC is a must (we don't have it at our house).

As for the real reason I'm here (you know, learning Spanish or whatever) I had my first class yesterday. The classes are 1 on 1 with a teacher and 4 hours long. It's pretty intense but hopefully I'll learn some Spanish by the end. Right now I feel pretty lame with my lack of spanish skills. Basically I use a lot of hands and "si" while I'm at home.

Yesterday after class we went to a private property that was on the river but also on the beach. La Ceiba is on the Caribbean and the water at the beach is warm! The river water was cooler and a lot more refreshing (and in the shade) so we spent more time in the river. It was pretty calm and little fish would swim up to you and nibble on you if you stand still. Kinda creepy/funny. We also gorged on pineapple, canteloupe, and watermelon. The fruit here is super ripe and delicious.

Today we explored La Ceiba by taking a field trip into El Centro or the town center. Our neighborhood, colonia el sauce, is a little outside and very residential so going into town was a change. We explored the markets (including a kinda gross meatmarket) and ate at a local restaurant. We had pastilletos (?) which were like mini empenadas with ground beef and rice and beans inside. We also had horchata which is different from the Mexican horchata we know from home; the Honduran version has peanuts in it.

This afternoon S and I accompanied little K (9 year old in our host family) to the Museo Mariposa or butterfly museum down the street. The museum was basically the back house of this older American guy's property with his impressive butterfly/bug collection. umm I held a tarantula! Little K was super excited which was cute. We had figured that she had been a bunch of times because the museum is so close but it turns out she had never been before! Later, back at the house she comes into S's room (which is normally our host mom's room... Which is awkward) and announces that she is getting a new bicycle. Then she squirts on some of her mom's perfume, brushes her hair, puts on a headband and says "estoy feliz. I am happy." So precious.

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Finally in Honduras

By some miracle we made it to Honduras. Finally! Today we flew from San Salvador, El Salvador to Roatan, Honduras and then on to La Ceiba (our final destination). No travel glitches today! Yay! Roatan is an island off the coast of Honduras and the airport was super cute and right on the water. The pic is of K and S as we were about to board our flight to La Ceiba. You can see mainland Honduras in the background.
Umm a note about Honduras: it's hot here. Like unbearably hot. As in I'm lying on my bed writing this with the fan blowing directly on me. It's not just hot; it's humid. I've spent the day dripping with sweat and not to be gross but my bra actually has a sweatline that goes up and across the cups. My cold shower was a nice treat tonight (the shower only has cold water so it's a good thing it's so hot outside!)
Today we walked to the mall (about 5 minutes) and discovered a way to beat the heat: hanging out at air-conditioned Wendy's. As in the fast food chain Wendy's. Everywhere we turn there's an American fast food chain. Sweet! I totally spent 3 days traveling down to Honduras to go to Wendy's! Or Pizza Hut or KFC.
My host family is interesting but I think it'll be fun living here. The family consists of the matriarch, G, who is 44, her daughters R (24) and K (9) and R's daughter V who is almost 2. V is so cute it's almost unbearable. She runs around the house opening doors and saying "hola!" S was also placed with my same family and there's also a young MD from Scotland, A, staying with us. Tonight we had quesodillas made with homemade tortillas for dinner.
Tomorrow we start classes. Have I mentioned that I don't know any Spanish? Yikes

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Fake out!

Sooo... we didn't make it to Honduras (again). Our flight was held up by immigration in Los Angeles and we ended up missing our connecting flight in El Salvador by like 5 minutes. Sadly, the next flight isn't for another 24 hours. The airline was actually very helpful and set us up in a sweet hotel in San Salvador.

I wish I could say we explored San Salvador, but it has been pouring down rain all day! Instead, we ate some comped meals, watched world cup, and napped in the cushy beds. Sweet!

Recap of our trip so far:

• 2 days late and still haven't made it to Honduras.
• Surprise visit to San Salvador complete with free hotel room and meals
  
• Refunds include cash and miles
• Upgraded to 1st class for Los Angeles to San Salvador flight

Tomorrow we will go to Honduras. We have one more layover (in Roatan, Honduras) before our final destination of La Ceiba. Hopefully we'll make it!

And we're off (for real)!

A day later, we're finally on a plane leaving LAX. And we got upgraded to 1st class! We spent the day cruising around LA. We had to drive to Koreatown to get the refund for the overbooked flight, which led to a trip to Scoops for some yummy icecream. Highlight of the LA trip: getting a nod of recognition from a redheaded man crossing the street in front of us. It went down something like this:
K and S: "J look a fellow redhead!" At this point the Gingerman glanced in our direction, looked at me, smiled and nodded. I responded with a "flame on" (international redhead greeting).

In the evening K and S (my travel buddies from med school) got a glimpse of my awesome roots at a family dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. "Now we understand why you're so... Special" they commented. Dinner was a hit. My little cousins were adorable (8 year old USC football-obsessed G: "USC has been to a lot of Rose Bowls but can't go now because of sanctions"). We watched the quality film "Blades of Glory." Sis-T and I did some Barn dancing (did you know I went to farm camp for 10 years? ha. Of course you did. I'm obsessed with it). Little cousin A's ridiculously cute teacup terrier, Lulu, won everybody over with her cute face and tiny tongue hanging out (just trust me on this one.... It's unbearably cute).

Ok. I've gtg. Time to fly to Honduras (via El Salvador). Did I mention we're in 1st class?

Minor Hiccup

Sooo... Our trip to Honduras has not quite started according to plans. Our flight to El Salvador was overbooked and we were left waiting in line at LAX. It's been about an hour since our flight took off (without us) and we're still waiting for some info. Looks like it'll be another day before we're able to get out of LA. :(

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Honduras!

Tonight I leave for a medical spanish program in La Ceiba, Honduras. So from here on out, I'll be blogging in Spanish. Oh wait. I know like zero Spanish. Sweet!! But hopefully that will change over the course of the next month :)

I've been prepping for the big trip all week by driving between MB and CdM a bunch of times, packing all of my toiletries in 3-ounce bottles, and buying a Kindle (AKA "my precious"). Last night, I saw "In the Heights" at the Pantages. Not only was this a great musical, but a good refresher for my Spanish vocab! Now, with about an hour to go before heading to the airport, I'm watching The Proposal. So... I'm pretty much good to go.

Oh yeah, I also got some great advice from Sis-T: "Don't go to the Mayan ruins. I've seen the movies. They're totally haunted! The plants will eat you!!" Thanks, little sister.

Anyway, I'll try to keep you all updated on the trip :)

summer!!

Hey guys! I finally finished my first year of med school! Now I have lots of free time to do a bunch of really important things. Like... umm... I changed the background on LAMe! Here are some other things I've done in my first few days of summer:

• laundry
• g-chatted with non med-students
• watched Julie and Julia
• napped
• pulled my back doing laundry (not sure how this was even possible... and then I tried to figure out which muscles are the culprit but this thinking was too strenuous for my fresh-into-summer mind)
• slept in

Okay fine. I'm a little bored. Already.

And fine... I'm kind of a liar. Here are some other (slightly more exciting things) I've done since school ended on Friday:

• attended a mustache party
• went to the beach (and got a sweet tan! oh wait, no.)
• hung out with the fam
• watched Jerseylicious with my friends from home (this was good, but sadly no table flipping... yet)

But really. I am a little bored. I guess I just don't know what to do with all of this free time. I have one more week of excitement/relaxation and then I'm off to Honduras for a month-long Medical Spanish program. yay!!

Pun Intended

Do you know what we don't hear enough of these days? Punny names. Okay, so we all know the classics like Pussy Galore from Goldfinger (and thus, from Austin Powers, Alotta Fagina), or Ben Dover from the Simpsons. Maybe these are too obvious for everyday life. Really though, with all of these crazy celebrity baby names, you would think there would be at least a couple clever puns involved!

Well today, I realized that my relatives had done their part to keep the world entertained through clever names.

I present to you: Granny Dot.

I know what you're thinking, "Oooh! Granny Dot! How clever! I totally see the pun here... or not." But wait! My great-grandmother's name was Dorothea Morse. She was related (somehow... and I just spent like 45 minutes searching genealogy sites online) to Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code (made up of dots and dashes for those of you who are unfamiliar with the code). And then my great-grandmother's parents decided to name their daughter Dorothea, or "Dot" for short. Get it?! Granny Dot?! OMG my family is amazing.

Aaand I just realized the punniness of my great-granny's name today while talking family history with my mom. It went something like this:

J: OMG mom, Granny Dot like the Morse Code! Because she was a Morse!! And he invented the Morse Code!!!

Mom: Yeah. You didn't put that together earlier?

J: No. Do you think they did it on purpose?

Mom: Oh, I don't know...

J: MOM!! Of course they did! How clever of them!

Seriously, though. These are the types of clever names we need more of. Less "Ben Dovers" and more "Dot Morses."

ps, this post was on track to being way more entertaining before I got sucked into Genealogy.com. Sorry.

News Alert: "How to Date a Med Student"

In case I haven't written enough about med school and dating, it looks like Fox News has jumped on the bandwagon with "How to Date a Med Student."

Sadly, I can identify with most (all) of these...

Also, which is a more reliable news source: LAMe! or Fox News?

Baby!!

Yesterday, something amazing happened: I had a baby! Wait. No. My UTEACH Mom had her baby!! Since February, I've been participating in a program called UTEACH, where I was paired with a pregnant woman and followed her to all of her doctor's appointments leading up to her delivery. Yesterday morning, I got the big call (okay, text) saying that she was in labor. Here are some highlights from the big day:

• When I got to L&D, the first thing my UTEACH Mom said to me was, "I got an epidural! I can't feel my legs!" At this point, she was only dilated 1cm and was having slightly irregular contractions (she had come into the hospital because her water broke at about 4am. They didn't call me until 9:30am... I'm glad they let me sleep in a bit).

• I spent about 4 hours just chilling in the laboring room with my UTEACH Mom, her mom, her step-mom, and her husband. Just the 5 of us... chilling.... for 4 hours. I had met her mom and husband and a few times at various doctor's visits, so at that point, I felt like part of the family! While we waited, the moms talked about their experiences with childbirth. It was probably one of the most feminine conversations I've ever been a part of.

• My UTEACH Mom and her husband had made various mixes of music to play for the big event. The mixes ranged from pop music, which played during parts of the labor, to soothing relaxation/spa music, for the delivery. They played it from their ipad (so cutting edge!).

• I love how being in labor is pretty much the only time you can order people around to help you and it is entirely acceptable. There were plenty of demands of "more ice!" (she could only eat ice chips), "rub my hand/back/belly!" "be quiet!" "change the music!" "Get this baby out!" from my UTEACH Mom. Overall, she was doing great, though.

• After hanging out for like 4 hours, I talked to the Residents (who were pretty much awesome) and they told me it was going to be a while until she went into active labor (the "pushing" part), since she's a first-time mom. "What's a while?" I asked. "Like tomorrow," they said, "We'll call you when she goes into active labor." So I went home. Like 20 minutes after getting home, I get a call from the hospital: "We're so sorry! We just checked and she's fully dilated! We were totally surprised! You should probably come back soon." So I drove back to the hospital.

• By the time I got back to the hospital, my UTEACH Mom was already pushing during her contractions. I'm pretty sure we were all pushing and breathing with her the whole time. The phrase: "Cleansing breath in and push 2, 3, 4... 10" became very familiar. To help her push, we would hold her legs or push against them. Watching a labor/delivery is difficult because you feel so helpless. For the most part, all we could do was help her breathe and cheer her on (at this point, we're almost beyond the "making her comfortable" phase). Many words of encouragement were given throughout: "Great pushing!" "Amazing job!" "You're so close!" "You're doing fantastic!"

• From my position (I was a leg holder), I had a perfect view of the baby making his way out. The last few contractions before the big moment were agonizing; we could all see the baby's head and so badly wanted to help get him out. When the time finally came, it was truly amazing. Suddenly, there was a baby! Relief and excitement filled the room. Honestly, I was entirely overcome with emotion (luckily, I held it together and though my eyes teared up a bit, no tears were actually shed). I can't even fully describe why. Seeing a new life emerge from his mother and begin was overwhelming and amazing.

• My UTEACH Mom's husband (my UTEACH Husband?) was such a trooper. But I think the final push sent him over the edge. As soon as the baby was out, he was like, "I've gotta get some fresh air" and left the room. I think he almost fainted! No wonder guys don't have babies; I don't think they can hang.

• One of the residents was beaming at me throughout the entire delivery. It's probably exciting and fun to share such "first-time" experiences with medical students. To be able to share, first-hand, why they love their jobs. Very inspiring.

• After the baby has come out, while they're still delivering the placenta, there was an odd, quiet moment. The baby had been swept away by NICU (he ended up totally healthy), the husband was catching his breath, the mom's were playing paparazzi with the baby, and my UTEACH Mom was kind of left alone on her bed. It went from everyone around her to nobody (except for the doctors delivering her placenta and getting everything in order) almost instantly. I was glad I was there to comfort her so that she didn't have to be alone, waiting for her baby (she hadn't even seen the little guy yet).

• Another great moment (I almost lost it again) was when mother and son met face-to-face for the first time. She let out a combination of a squeal of excitement mixed with a cry of relief as she held her baby for the first time. And then, "OMG, I can't believe this came out of me!!!" Classic. (I was thinking the same thing).

Overall, this was an amazing experience. To be able to follow a pregnancy all the way to the end was very special and rewarding. I also learned that 1) it would be pretty rad to deliver babies as your job and 2) I could probably have a baby, too (childbirth has been a major fear of mine for a really long time... but after seeing my UTEACH Mom get through it, I know I could too... not that this is happening anytime soon).

*Also, for the record, the pic above is of a random baby and not my UTEACH baby.

Nerd Alert!

The other day, my sister said to me: "Wow, med school has made you an even bigger dork than I thought possible."

WHAT?! Me? A dork? Nooo....

I mean, there might be a couple of things that I do that are kinda dorky (I guess).

But, who doesn't like wearing tie-dyed shirts with 10 cute kitties on them?!

And wearing Sketchers Shape-ups helps me tone my legs while I walk around campus (and imagine how great they'll be in the hospital during 3rd and 4th year... I see all the nurses wearing them now). Plus, I think they're funny.

As for wearing Thai Fisherman pants, those things are comfortable! Perfect for studying in.

Everyone likes a good science/medicine/anatomy reference thrown into a normal conversation. Especially non-science people. For example, I spent like 10 minutes on the phone with my Sis-T the other day explaining the Babinksi Reflex... and trying to get her to test her own. She pretty much loved this.

Meowing is totally normal. I know like dozens of people who do this.

Okay, fine. I'll give her the whole redhead thing. It is very true that the majority of gingers are fairly dorky. But I've had my red hair long before med school. So, really, if that's the measure of how dorky you are, I've been a big dork for years. Maybe med school is just enhancing it...

I'm an a**hole doctor.

Whoa! Whoa! Calm down, people! We all know that I’m not a doctor… yet. But, be warned now: there’s a good chance that when I do become one, I may also become kind of a jerk (as in, I could become a doctor who acts like an asshole, as opposed to a doctor who specializes in working with the anus).

Have you ever met a physician who acts like he is the most important person in the world and anyone/thing that may inconvenience or waste his time is the scum of the earth? Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration. But still, I’ve met quite a few doctors who act this way and I don’t like it one bit. Who do they think they are?! Why is his time more important than anyone else’s? This attitude gives the profession of medicine a bad face (and quite frankly, rubs me the wrong way).

“I would never act like that once I’m a doctor,” I had thought to myself. Then one day, about a month into medical school, I found myself complaining to a classmate about a required class on our schedule: “How dare they schedule that class on a Monday afternoon?!” Honestly, I can’t remember the class or even the subject. But I do know that it was lame and something that I had deemed a waste of my time. And I was pissed.

It was at this point that I realized that I was acting very similarly to those very physicians that I did not want to be like. How did this happen? I used to be such a nice person (well, at least I thought so)! The truth is, I know exactly what happened: Medical school happened. You see, we don’t have a lot of free time. In fact, our schedules are so busy that we are constantly being asked to make choices about our activities.

For example, “Should I go to powderpuff practice, go to Ob/gyn Interest Group, or study Biochem?” If I don’t go to practice, I may not make any friends in medical school, but if I don’t study Biochem, I may not make it through medical school anyway. If I don’t go to OBIG, I may not get a good residency! Such tough decisions!

A career in medicine involves making a lot of sacrifices. I’ve lost family time, friend time, personal hygiene time, hobby time, tv time, exercise time, relaxation time, blogging time (!), etc. all in the name of medicine. And I’m okay with it (mostly). I knew what I signed up for and I think (hope) becoming a physician and helping people will make it worth it.

What I’m not okay with is people wasting my time. Because I am constantly forced to make decisions between activities that I want to participate in, it is incredibly frustrating to make these sacrifices in order to do things that I don’t want to do, but have to. Medical school is filled with such activities. With time being such a precious commodity, I am acutely aware of how I would like to spend it. And when people waste my time, I get cranky. Suddenly, I find myself acting just like those physicians who I don’t want to be… and I’m only an MS1! Is “How Not to be an Asshole” covered in Clinical Foundations II?