My Caribbean Medical School Experience: Med school is a roller coaster

I believe that I left off the last post discussing my exam and such. I passed again, just not on an overwhelming level. My head is still above water and I just keep on swimming :-). So I have officially made it through another week of med school and not much has gotten easier. Insomnia has kicked in on some days, the drive to wake in the morning isn't there and feeling drained during the day makes it difficult to study or think. One thing, however, I can say is that I have some great friends. I spent the entirety of today recapping a weeks worth of lectures and notes with them, making sure that we all knew the information. During our break I went to the store to stock up on food for the next month including all of the essentials such as a case of diet coke, coffee, red bull, canned ravioli, pasta, crackers, bread, and burger buns. I eat like a champion. We then ordered Chinese from Bob's and I graciously enjoyed my meal as we exchanged stories of awesomeness. We then proceeded to quiz each other until my brain turned to mush.

My Brain.

Shooting back to last week Saturday, I rose in time to see the sun and took a nice jog with my friend Brad. We took a run up a hillside to a side road that bordered the jungle. That road curved around and made a few nice turns and such until we came out on "moo cow" trail near my friend Stephanie's place. Brad and I mocked Steph from outside her window as we jogged by and made our way to the road bordering the ocean in Portsmouth. We doubled back after a few miles and I told myself that I was glad to get up early to run, because now I had the whole day to study and work hard! So I waved bye to Brad and proceeded to my apartment to take a shower. After the shower I got hard to work. As my head hit the pillow like a ton of bricks I slept until noon. Upon waking up is when I actually got to work. So I started the stove to make some lunch instead (a man can't work on an empty stomach!) I managed to be productive at some point that day but the few days prior I was in a funk due to insomnia and as a result was sleeping the daylight away to catch up,only to repeat the cycle for the entire week. I learned that the coffee here is the equivalent to high octane jet fuel that may or may not be worse than an energy drink. I had a few cups after 6pm one night and was on a 11hour non-blinking streak (that's 5am if you didn't want to do the math.) Needless to say, I primarily learn from mistakes and in the words of Bill Nye the Science Guy :

I wish I was cool enough for a bow tie...

I spent a majority of this week playing catchup, which is a terrible feeling. I would place the feeling of getting behind in med school up there with looking forward to your first mid-life prostate exam, You know you have to do it, but it's never something you look forward to. I am a long way away from that, and I am going to keep it that way. I have a tough week of material coming up, so I hope I can get it down. Blood is a very complicated yet amazing tissue and I will leave it at that.

As for intramural hockey, I have had 2 games since I last wrote. Last week's game we beat the "professors" by a score of "we lost count" to 0. It wasn't much of a game on a competitive level, but it was fun nonetheless. (I feel like it may have been karma from the exam just days before.)

My game this week was a close one. This week we played the team that beat us 9-5 in our first league game. I have to say, it was a well fought game, and even got a little chippy at times. After the first of two periods we were down 6-5. The final score was 13-9 in out favor. I have a great team, and these games really ground me in reality after a week of "hard" work. Our record is now 3-1 Go Multiple Score-osis!

Multiple Score-osis

I believe tomorrow evening marks the first large campus event since orientation called Beach Bash. I'll do my best to take pictures and update everyone on the festivities tomorrow or sometime soon.

And now for the pictures I have accumulated this week.