White Coat Ceremony!

So here I am completely done with my first week of medical school! This week was the week of the "rude awakening." Each day I woke up at 7am, ate breakfast either consisting of oatmeal with brown sugar or a peanut butter sandwich. I may be starting a debate, but crunchy peanut butter tastes better.  Anywho. My average  day consists of lecture on various subjects like anatomy, micro anatomy, and genetics from 8am until 12. One day this week I even got a taste of home!

 Then I'll grab lunch at the shacks ( I cannot believe I haven't taken pictures there yet). So far I have tried the chicken sandwich at shack 14 (muy deliciouso) and the iced coffee from shack 18 and a veggie humus wrap from another one. Which reminds me, on Wednesday I had an enlightening occurrence. So I ordered my humus wrap and was standing around waiting when the Dean of Ross comes up and orders his food next to me. I introduced myself and we chatted and made small talk for a little while. I was standing with my money in hand waiting to pay and a guy behind me asked me for change in a thick accent. Somehow in the miscommunication I handed him $5 in EC (Eastern Caribbean dollar) expecting to get 5 individual dollar coins in return. So he reaches into his pocket ( I thought for the change) and proudly stuffs the 5 dollar bill into the bottom and walks away! I was stunned. I had no idea what had just happened. I chuckled because I plainly got robbed of my lunch money... And that will be the last time I ever make change for someone I do not know.  You're welcome sir. Now don't spend it all in one place! (It was like $2 US... )

The rest of my days usually consisted of spending a solid 5-6 hours of studying, reading and going over powerpoints. I have never studied for any class for six hours until this week. Never. Not only did I do that once, but 5 days in a row for six hours. Med school is not easy. It will wear me out. By 3pm I'm mentally pooped, by 7pm I usually have a headache, and by 11pm I look like a zombie when I'm skypeing. I am doing well aside from all of that. I'm staying healthy, working out, eating well and most definitely staying out of trouble. There isn't much else to do beside study and go to class, so I hope I don't get burnt out to quickly. I bought a case of Red bull yesterday and I got a lot of funny looks. But listen up all you lookers! I was looking at you too, when you all slept though class or parked your head on your book in the library hoping to learn through diffusion... Here's a wake up call (no pun intended), you won't learn by diffusion. Technically, even though the knowledge concentration gradient between the book and your head is substantial, diffusion won't work here. And in the case for those I saw drooling, it doesn't work for osmosis either   :P.

The idea is there, but this is "simple diffusion"

Osmosis is diffusion through water.

Moving on. So today was the day of the white coat ceremony. It was a very exciting and symbolic day for me. It helped me realize that it is actually happening. I am so thankful to have a great group of friends (both new and old), a great family at home, and a wonderful girlfriend. Here are some pictures from the last few days:

 Here's my coat! I never put it on until the ceremony.

 Outside the hall before the ceremony

 Eagerly waiting for the ceremony to start

 My first seconds with my coat on

I like this one. Makes me look professional!

 Reception tent

 Scrumptious.

 Med students are hungry!

 My group of friends.

 I'm really upset.

A room full of future doctors.

And a cool little sticker someone had on the back of their mac...

Thanks for reading!

Nick