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!