Peace out, 2008

2008 was an interesting year for me, to say the least. Because of all the things that have happened, I'd like to recap the year.

JANUARY
I got accepted into medical school! After all the sweat and tears I shed over whether or not I'm cut out for medical school, Ross University decided to take a chance on me. I was pretty happy that it was a school that I knew produced good doctors and one that I knew I wouldn't mind going to as long as I could get through the 16 months of living in Dominica.

Gabe also turned 24, and we celebrated by having the most amazing (albeit VERY expensive) sushi dinner at Sushi Yasuda. <3

FEBRUARY
Hm, I can't think of anything exciting that happened during this month. Gabe and I celebrated our 5th Valentine's Day together casually by eating paella and tapas at La Nacional. I guess the Giants won the Superbowl too.

MARCH
I finally got to take Gabe home to Chicago and show him around the city and suburbs. We happened to come on a bitterly cold weekend, but it was still fun to explore the city together, show him where I come from, and introduce him to some of my relatives.

APRIL
I don't think anything all too interesting happened in April either, but the urgency to make the most of the rest of my time in NYC hit. At this point, I only had a couple of months left in NYC and wanted to spend time with my friends, eat out, and explore the city as much as I could.

MAY
Graduation parties!

JUNE
Last month in NYC, so I had to live it up. I spent as much time as I could with Gabe and friends, explored the city, and ate...a lot. Gabe and I had a fabulous meal at Eleven Madison Park - THANK YOU! I moved out of my Astoria apt (::tear::) and then moved back to Chicago for 2 months.

JULY
The entire month was spent in Chicago. It was nice to have no real obligations. No work, no school. I basically just spent time with my family, ran the usual errands with my mom on a daily basis, and rediscovered Chicago. I began to realize how much I love this city and how it really is home. NYC will always be my second home, and it will always have a very special place in my heart, but Chicago is truly where it's at. Vadicel came by for a few days during my birthday week. I got to show her around the city, and I know she loved it hehe. I celebrated my 23rd birthday in style at both Cafe Iberico and Blackbird Restaurant. Yummy.

AUGUST
Another month mostly spent at home, but my family also traveled to the southern coast of Italy, which was PHENOMENAL. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever traveled to, and I'm grateful that we got to go there as a family. We go on family vacations every year, but this one truly stands out in my mind. Then finally, I left for medical school in a foreign country...

SEPTEMBER
This was definitely one of the tougher months of the year. I had to adjust to a completely different environment from what I was used to as well as adjust to medical school. It was tough being away from both family and friends, but I adapted well in Dominica. I still can't say that I like it there, but it truly is a blessing to be in medical school.

OCTOBER
Blah, nothing. Medical school, what else?

NOVEMBER
Same as above again. It was my first Thanksgiving away from home, but I tried to stay positive and simply be thankful that I'm in medical school.

DECEMBER
Got through my first semester of medical school. It was a milestone, and I'm so happy and relieved that I passed and can move on to second semester. Spending a few weeks at home is a nice relief. Gabe gets in today (December 30th), so his visit will be a great way to kick off the year.

I was never really one to make any major New Year's resolutions, but for 2009, my goal is to stay in better touch with my friends in NY. This past semester, there were definitely periods of time when I didn't communicate regularly with all of my close friends. But for the rest of 2009, I want to make sure I'm able to find the time to catch up with friends on a regular basis. My other obvious goal is to pass the next 3 semesters so I can officially be off the island of Dominica by December 2009. It's gonna be a tough year, but I'm excited about all the things I'm gonna learn and experience during the rest of my time in Dominica.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Belated Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was a bit different this year. It was quieter, and we didn't have the usual big family gathering. It was just my immediate family, but still nice because we cooked a lot and watched movies. We'll be having the big family New Year's party at my house this year, which we've never done before. I'm really excited though because Gabe will be here too. It'll definitely be a holiday of reunions. I still have to figure out what we're going to cook and what fun drinks we can shake up.

If you'd like to see what I've been cooking up since I've been home, please be directed to my food blog here. The pork tenderloin with caramelized apples I made for Christmas Eve dinner turned out really well. I haven't really eaten out yet since I've been home, but hopefully I'll manage to go out a bit more in the next two weeks so I can review some Chicago restaurants.

Nizza

I know most if not all of my sneakers are metallic, but I really never get sick of it. I'm definitely feelin' these Adidas sneakers. They're so sleek!

My new haircut

I finally got a haircut today. For some reason, my hair grew extremely fast in the Caribbean. Must be the guavas and plantains I eat all the time.

Since I'm home in Chicago and in a place where I don't have a reason to not look half decent on a daily basis, I decided I can do somewhat of a style diary while I'm here. Man, I definitely do miss wearing clothes other than boring tshirts and flip flops.

Unisex oversized tshirt - American Apparel
Braided belt - American Apparel
Black jeans - Uniqlo
Boots - Dolce Vita

Pass!

I passed my first semester of medical school! That probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but anyone who's familiar with Ross University knows that just making it to 2nd semester is a milestone. Like I may have mentioned before, I was doing ok until the final. I never really struggled with grades and was never really borderline pass/fail until I finished the final and could have sworn I failed biochem so badly that I wouldn't get promoted to 2nd semester. Well, I definitely did do VERY badly on the biochem portion of the final, but thankfully, good enough to allow me to get promoted.

So now I can relax and enjoy the rest of my winter break without TOO much worry. 2nd semester will definitely be difficult. Some say it's the hardest semester of basic sciences, but we'll see. I know I really studied well 1st semester. I didn't struggle too much with the workload because NYU prepared me pretty well. And thankfully, I maintained pretty good study habits all throughout the semester. However, I know I have to step it up and have more of that urgency to really master the material as best as I can on the day that lecture is held. Hopefully, I can improve.

I'm home!

I'm finally home after a long first semester of medical school. You have no idea how good it feels to go home. When we landed in Puerto Rico, a few of my friends and I had dinner at Wendy's, and that may have been the most satisfying meal I had in 3 and a half months. The night I got home, my dad cooked steak too which was awesome.

I honestly don't really know how the final went for me. It may have been one of the roughest exams I've ever taken, and even though I was doing alright grades-wise going into the final, I've been pretty paranoid that the final may have KILLED me. I can only hope and pray to God that I passed first semester. Until grades come out, I'm just going to try to forget about the horror that was my first semester final and just try to relax and enjoy myself.

Being home is definitely great though. I'm sleeping in a nice big bed with multiple pillows and a comforter. I've taken nice showers with strong water pressure. I've eaten beef. I went shopping for the first time in 3 and a half months. I went to Costco. Seriously, everything is so big in America! I'm so looking forward to Christmas and seeing all of my relatives again. Equally so, I'm looking forward to seeing Gabe for the first time since the end of June. We'll be spending New Year's together here in Chicago. No matter what happens with my grades and whether or not I passed first semester, I know it's gonna be a good break.

stuff

Mini 3 was today ("3rd midterm"), and it was by far the hardest we've had this semester. Well, it's over, and all I can do at this point is study as hard as I possibly can for my cumulative final. By cumulative, I mean EVERY class and material from the WHOLE semester in one 125 question final. Obviously, there's no way there can be one question for every lecture since we've had way more than 125 lecture hours. We'll see what happens. It's going to be a hard final, but I'm just hoping I pass 1st semester (it's not as easy and simple as you think...).

The final is on Tuesday (4 days from now), then I get to fly off of this island on Wednesday! I'll FINALLY be home on Thursday. Ah, I can't wait.

Interesting article in the NYTimes today: Where Have All the Doctors Gone?. It discusses the issue of primary health care and how there are simply not enough primary care physicians to care for every American. I'm a million percent into the ability for all citizens to have health care insurance, but first, we need more primary care physicians.

Also, I forgot that there's a cupcake place in Chicago run by Chef Gale Gand. They famous for their BACON CUPCAKES. I believe there's a BLT cupcake and a bacon and apple cupcake. See? Bacon and apples! Here's a slightly old review of More Cupcakes in Chicago.

Goodbye, Jerry

My histology and anatomy practicals are over! Histology didn't go as smoothly as I expected, but I'm pretty sure I didn't fail it or anything. It's only worth 8% anyways. Fortunately, my anatomy practical went way better than I expected. I didn't do well on the first one, so I really studied my ass off for this second practical, especially since we all expected it to be way harder than the first. I'm fairly positive I got an A on it, but I don't want to be too sure until I get my grade back.

With that said, I'd like to bid my cadaver farewell. His name is Jerry because he had "Jerry" tattooed on his right arm. Whether that's really his name or not, we don't know. But I certainly learned A LOT from that guy. I treated him with respect, as if he were my first patient, and I sprayed him down with formaldehyde so much like you wouldn't believe. Unfortunately, other people did not take care of his body quite as well because he eventually became the smelliest and moldiest body in the cadaver lab that no one wanted to touch him during these last few weeks prior to our practical.

In any case, I bid farewell to Jerry and thank him for teaching me a lot this semester.

A couple of noteworthy articles

The Six Habits of Highly Respectful Physicians

Panel Calls for Changes in Doctor Training

Hopefully I can put in my 2 cents on these two articles after my anatomy and histology practicals tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my first Thanksgiving away from home, and it's certainly kind of a bummer, especially since there's very little spirit of Thanksgiving here in Dominica. Tonight, a few of my friends and I are going to go to a Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by the Ross Student Catholic Association. True, it won't be the same, and I won't have endless amounts of Filipino food to go along with the usual Thanksgiving meal, but I'm happy that I get to celebrate the occasion in some way or another. I've missed 5 Easters at home being in NY, so even though I consider Thanksgiving to be a bigger deal, I guess I've gotten used to missing out on big family gatherings and holidays.

Being the optimist that I am (and that I have to be...I could rant on and on about how negative some people can be here), I'm still thankful because if I wasn't here on Thanksgiving Day, then I wouldn't be in med school fulfilling one of my biggest goals in life. It's true. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are the things I'm thankful for.

- Family - I don't think I have to go on and on about this, but I'm thankful to have such a strong support system back home in Chicago. They're the people who I know I'll ALWAYS be able to count on no matter what happens.
- Friends - my friends in NY basically are my family, and I know that even though I'm missing out on a lot these next couple of years, they'll still always have my back.
- Gabe - he's handsome, smart, and has extremely good taste in food and fashion. my kind of guy. I'm so thankful he's so supportive of me even when we're thousands of miles apart.
- New York City - I never really thought about this before Dominica, but I'm so thankful I've gotten a chance to live in the greatest city in the world for 5 years. It's taught me so much about myself, life, society, the world...everything. Having lived in New York not only helped me to adapt to med school and Dominica in so many ways (possibly reserve this discussion for a separate blog post), but it's helped me grow into a mature and experienced person.
- Med school - it really is an honor and a privilege to be in med school and to be learning all these things, so I'm thankful that this school has given me this opportunity. It's definitely not easy, but it's not supposed to be, so I'll be even more thankful if I can pass every semester and not fail a single standardized exam.
- Bacon - I like bacon.
- Wheat beer, fine wine, and fancy cocktails - I like sophisticated forms of alcohol.
- Ninjavideo.net - you'll fall in love too.
- food and fashion - two things I absolutely love but don't have much of here in Dominica.

Anyways, I could probably go on and on about the random things I'm thankful for, but it's time to resume pulmonary phys studying. I get to eat turkey in an hour and a half, YAY!

Bacon Apple Pie

Yes! I want to make this. If you know me well, you know i LOVE bacon. Everything is better with bacon. Now considering the fact that I've done research on hypertension and cardiovascular disease and am currently learning all the ins and outs of the cardiovascular system in medical school, I probably shouldn't love and promote bacon as much as I do. But I just can't help but wish I could bake a bacon apple pie for Thanksgiving. Before you run away all grossed out, there are actually a lot of things that incorporate bacon and apples together. It's nothing unusual. Try googling "bacon and apples." Lots of recipes will come up.

Maybe I'll bake this for Christmas. Hmmm.

Feel free to read for my previous guanciale recipes.

28 days away

I'm officially 28 days away from landing in O'Hare Airport, and all I can think about is what I'm going to eat when I get home. So here's a list of some of the places in Chicago I would like to eat/drink at during my 3 week break:

The Violet Hour
Hopleaf
Aigre Doux
The North Pond
Naha
Tank Noodle
Sweets and Savories
Fox and Obel
Pastoral
Lawry's
Sun Wah
TAC Quick
Kahn BBQ
La Pasadita
Hot Doug's
Map Room
Kuma's Corner
La Casa de Isaac
Sun Wah
Francesca's
Hop Haus
Mercat a la Plancha
Hot Chocolate
Restaurant Michael
Avec
Blackbird

I've already been to some of those places but surely wouldn't mind a revisit.

Since I'm arriving around lunch time, I've decided that I think I want to go to Hot Doug's for my first meal back in the States. How about some antelope sausage with creme fraiche and fontina cheese? YES PLEASE. I need weird (but GOOD) food again. Thanks.

Need new kicks...

I'm not really into AF1's, but if they could put this color scheme (with the nylon) on Air Max 90's, this would satisfy my biannual need for new kicks.

Photo from Nitrolicious

Pro-Keds

Not to bite Gabe's bboy style for Pro-Keds, but I kinda want a pair of red or purple ones.

Photo from Highsnobbete

No lobster at "all you can eat lobster"

As a post-Mini 2 treat and Earl's birthday, a big group of us decided to go to Sunset Bay restaurant about 30 minutes away from campus. It's popular around here for having all you can eat lobster for around $30US. That's a pretty amazing deal coming from the US. Basically...THERE WAS NO LOBSTER. What a disappointment. The restaurant barely had anything that was on the regular menu. They pretty much just had "local beef", chicken, and mussels. Because of the fact that we're in Dominica, I'll excuse the fact that there was hardly anything. You kinda just have to get used to that around here.

One day, I WILL get those lobsters.

I'm back...for now

I haven't written in this blog since before classes started, so obviously you can tell it's been pretty crazy. My days are basically always the same. Wake up, go to class, eat lunch, go to class (if there is afternoon class), lab (if there is afternoon lab), or study for the rest of the day, then sleep...Repeat. It never really changes, and there's not really such a thing as a weekend.

However, things aren't as difficult as I imagined it to be. Thankfully, I quickly learned the best and most efficient study techniques for myself, and I've learned how to manage my time well. As for the latter, it's really not that difficult because there's really not much else to do on this island except study. I've figured things out pretty well that I still manage to get 7 hours of sleep every single night and talk to Gabe and my mom everyday. Some days there might be exceptions, but in all honesty, there's no reason to not get 7 hours of sleep every night. I wouldn't be surprised if this changes in future semesters though.

But yeah, things are alright. There are times when I get really homesick. I always miss my friends, I miss going out whether that be to a bar, shopping, or restaurant. I miss roaming around New York. I miss good food. I miss having free time to do whatever the hell I want. I miss A LOT of things. When I look back on life before med school, I feel like I'm looking back on a previous life. Things are just so different now, and it's sad to think I'll probably never be able to really go back to that life I had.

But there are also the times when I remind myself that it truly is an honor and a privilege to be in medical school and to be learning all the things that I am. A lot of people like to complain about the ridiculous amount of material we have to learn in a given time, but I love it. Of course, it's difficult. Med school is supposed to be difficult. Each semester at Ross is 3.5 months, and I honestly think that by the end of this semester, I will have learned as much material in one semester of med school as I did in 4 years at NYU. Ok, maybe 3 years. I guess it's a good thing I'm genuinely interested in everything I'm learning so far, with the possible exception of reading radiographs. I don't like that.

Anyways, I'm still alive, and I sure hope to God I make it through.

Hopefully, I'll continue to write more in the future...

Island Tour

As one of the orientation events, my school sponsored a 10-hour island tour. It sounds like a lot, but at least half of it was spend in the car. Maybe this island isn't as small as I thought. We all met at 8am in front of the library to load the buses (which are really more like big vans), but we didn't actually leave until maybe 8:45. After a lot of winding roads going up the mountain, we reached Freshwater Lakes around 10am.


I didn't get a great picture of the lakes. This is near the top of a mountain where it's cloudy probably 99% of the time. This island is basically a rainforest, so it was really cold and rainy at the lakes. It would usually just rain for 5 minutes, stop, then you can see the rain coming again moving across the lakes. It's actually pretty cool. I should've shot a video of it. It was too wet on the hiking trail here, so we didn't really get to hike. But there were a few brave souls who jumped in the freezing water.


We then drove down the mountain a little bit to get to Trafalgar Falls which is a set of two waterfalls. From the parking lot, we hiked up and down a few hills to get to the point where we can see both of the waterfalls. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to go down to the actual water because the trail was so wet and slippery from all the rain. They don't call these things rainforests for nothing. It was damp and rainy the whole time, and eventually, there was a massive downpour. You really can't survive on this island without an umbrella. Anyways, hopefully one day I can come back when it's safe enough to actually get in the water and possibly the hot springs.

Next, we had a buffet lunch, which wasn't anything spectacular. One thing to note about buffets in Dominica is that you're only allowed one plate and one round around the buffet. Also, people serve the meat and fish to you, but not the other stuff. So basically, load up on the starches and veggies.


My favorite part of the tour was Scott's Head, which is at the southern tip of Dominica. It's the point where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. It was really beautiful there. We walked on the landstrip that separates the two bodies of water, then hiked up a big hill to get to the viewpoint. You can definitely tell the difference between the two because the Caribbean is more tranquil and turquoise while the Atlantic has more waves. After getting a bunch of pictures, I walked down the hill and around to the part where people were swimming. It was so humid outside that I didn't feel like swimming and getting back onto the bus all wet. Next time, I'll go snorkeling there though.

Even though I wasn't a fan of the rain, the humidity, and all the driving, I'm really glad I went on this long island tour. It really gave me a chance to see the southern part of the island and all of the different environments. There was everything ranging from the cold lakes up in the mountains to the wet rainforest, the dingy and very undeveloped city of Roseau to the the beautiful and sunny oceanside. Even though Dominica isn't really the greatest place to live, I'm starting to appreciate it more and more. I'm actually glad to know that I still have many more Dominican sites to see because it gives me something to look forward to in regards to living here.

More orientation week

This is the view from Ross University's campus. It's quite beautiful. But other than that, the campus is ugly minus the insides. However, I can't expect any more than what they give for a third world country.

Aside from boring and sometimes useless orientation lectures, I honestly haven't been doing anything else except get adjusted to living here. It's a good thing I talked to people who've been here, so I knew what to expect. I think if I hadn't done that, I'd be pretty unhappy here. One thing that I do like here though is that the locals are really nice. It's custom to say hello to everyone you walk by, and that's something that I have to get used. You just don't do that in NY. Not only are there too many people there, but it's an unfriendly city. I've been good about saying hi to everyone here, or at least the locals.

But of course there are things that I don't like that I have to get used to. First of all, the weather here really sucks. Yeah, I'm in the Caribbean, and I shouldn't be saying things like that, but really, the weather is pretty awful. It's so hot and RIDICULOUSLY humid. 3 minutes of walking can get me profusely sweating. It also rains pretty much everyday, but only for 10-15 minutes or so. We did have a mild tropical storm a couple of days ago when it rained for about 2 hours. That resulted in brown water for about a day, which was not cool. It's a good thing I had enough water in my fridge to brush my teeth with.

Also, there are these tiny flies that come SWARMING after it rains - like a serious mass exodus of these flies that come swarming to the light. After maybe 30 minutes, they all of a sudden commit suicide and drop dead. It's really bizarre. It turns out there's a tiny gap between the door of my balcony and the ground, so all of a sudden, there were a million tiny flies entering my apt. After that, we taped the gap, left my apt, battled the even more tiny flies by my front door, and ran to get some bug killer spray. But by the time we got back, they had all dropped dead. I just use packing tape to pick up the tiny dead flies. It actually works really well.

Overall, I think I'm getting used to all the annoying island things. Strangely enough, the heat is the one I'm having the most difficulty with. It's just so brutally humid. I'm sure I'll be complain more the day I get caught in the rain. Hopefully, I'll grow to like this island though. There's nothing to do around here, so it's actually quite conducive for studying which is exactly what I need.

Settling In

So I'm pretty much settled in here. There haven't been any surprises. It's pretty much what I expected, so it's good that I talked to other people who've already been here. It is a poor, third world country, but there's hardly any crime, and locals are extremely nice. I have to get used to saying hello to every single person I walk by. Island life is of course really slow and laidback, and there are cows that just chill on the side of the streets. Unfortunately, they are not for consumption. They're just wild animals here. It's seriously very amusing to me to be walking next to a cow on the way to campus.

Probably the one major downfall of being here is traveling here. You usually have to spend a night in Puerto Rico on the way here, and if you don't, then you're probably going to miss your connecting flight. Also, one shouldn't be surprised if their luggage doesn't arrive at the same time as they do. My parents and I had an overnight in Puerto Rico, so we checked in at American Eagle 3 HOURS prior to the flight to make sure our luggage would arrive. Lo and behold, our luggage wasn't on our flight, possibly because they put the early luggages at the end of the line. It was kinda annoying that all 6 of our luggages didn't end up in Dominica at the same time as we did, but it ended up being on a charter flight after us, so it all arrived on campus that same evening.

So flying into Dominica is interesting. When you begin descending, it really looks like the plane landing in Jurassic Park. It's all green, and it looks like you're landing on top of trees. It's kind of bizarre because it makes you wonder where the hell you are, but it's pretty cool.

Aside from having to wait around for my luggage, Day 1 wasn't so bad. A welcome committee took us on a campus tour. It looks pretty shabby on the outside, but that's expected since this is a third world country. However, the inside of the classrooms are pretty nice. Every single chair in the lecture halls has it's own 110v plug, and there are big LCD screens hanging around the bigger halls. However, the library is really small. Do note that I'm really used to Bobst at NYU...sigh, you have no idea how much I wish I could study there.

After the campus tour, we ate at Brother's Chinese Restaurant. For whatever reason, it seems like Chinese food and Subway are the only two things to eat down here. It wasn't that bad though. I mean, it was good considering it's Chinese food in the Caribbean. It's definitely edible Chinese and seems clean to eat. Possibly cleaner than a lot of places in Chinatown. However, it's nowhere near Chinatown or Flushing.

Finally, all of our luggage came, and we were ready to get driven to my apt in the building called New Avies. It's a brand new building, which is both good and bad. The place is really well taken care of, and the landlord/lady are so helpful and nice, but my cable isn't set up yet, and the internet is inconsistent. Overall, it's pretty nice and definitely way nicer than most affordable places in NY. Electricity is pre-paid here, and it's pretty expensive, so it's a good thing that I've already been in the habit of turning off the A/C before I leave my apt and only using it when absolutely necessary.

Aside from extreme tiredness, my first day here wasn't so bad. Hopefully, I can catch up on the other things that have been happening in the last few days. I'll eventually put up pictures too!

Puerto Rico

My parents and I left O'Hare yesterday afternoon and arrived in Puerto Rico a little after 7pm. Our flight to Dominica is at 12:35pm today. There's only one flight from Puerto Rico to Dominica per day, so we were pretty much forced into an overnight. In a way, I liked it. Since our hotel is literally in the airport, all we could do was relax in the hotel room for the evening and this morning.

We actually had a pretty decent and cheap dinner last night. We went to a sports bar&grill across the street from our hotel (though still on airport grounds). I had some ropa vieja with rice, beans, and ripe fried plaintains, all for $7.95! It was really good and possibly my last good meal until I return home again in December.

I just hope we arrive into Dominica with all our luggage and no problems. At this point, I can't wait to just get to my apartment and settle in. Hopefully, this all goes well.

Trying to get ready, get set, and go

Ever since I officially decided to go to Ross University School of Medicine, I've been meaning to start up a personal blog that would primarily be focused on my journey through medical school and moving to a rural island in the Caribbean. Tomorrow, I'm leaving Chicago for Dominica (with an overnight stop in Puerto Rico), and only now did I set up this blog.

Maybe one day, I'll eventually write about the blood, sweat, and tears I shed prior to the day I got accepted and how I thought I would never ever get in because of my mediocre grades and test scores. But for now, let's just say that I've been enjoying myself and relaxing as much as I possibly can ever since I got accepted into Ross. I enjoyed my last 6 months of freedom in New York, hanging out with all of my friends and eating out as much as my wallet could allow. And in the last 2 months, I've also rediscovered Chicago, my home.

Now I'm almost packed to move to the foreign territory of Dominica. (P.S. It is NOT the Dominican Republic) A city girl is now about to become a rural island girl. It's scary, and sometimes I think I'm not ready for this, but let's see how this all goes.