I'm taking a little break to do something "therapeutic". Well, taking a break til tomorrow - I'm done for the night. A person can only study for so long in a day. I'm probably very weak in that respect, in that I really don't have a high tolerance for studying. I never have. I'm afraid that I may have reached an educational level where I'll finally start paying for that weakness. Ugh. I did study for about 9 hours today, but i definitely took a few breaks in there. Oh well, I can only ask so much of myself. Anyway, enough with the rationalizations.
So, my first exam is Monday. It's a day-long affair - 2-hour written exam in the morning, 2-hour dry practical after lunch and 2-hour wet practical after that. The "wet" practical is identifying tagged structures in the cadavers, and the "dry" practical is identifying structures and their functions/origins/relationships/etc on computer-based slides. Waaaa-hooooo. The exam content is based on three weeks worth of lectures and labs, which quite honestly feels like nearly two months' worth. But for now I'm just thanking my lucky starts that they give us exams as frequently as they do, because any more material than this would be downright unbearable. I was finally starting to find some kind of rhythm and balance to my new life as a medical student, and this exam is just really throwing a wrench into things!
But, all in all it really hasn't been too bad. I get up around 8, drink some coffee, watch some lame TV, maybe review the day's lecture notes/powerpoints (posted ahead of time), and leave for lab by 9:15 (I've been trying out the idea of skipping morning lecture in favor of more sleep and then working through the lecture recordings after lab at my own pace). I usually get home between 12:30 and 1:00, I have time to run a few errands if necessary, watch an episode of Las Vegas (TNT at noon and 1:00 every day!), have some lunch, fool around on Facebook a little, and then watch/study the lectures from that morning. Sometimes it runs over into the evening if the lectures are particularly complex, but there are many days where I'm done by the time Ben gets home from work! Pretty sweet life, I have to say. I know it won't stay like this forever, but for now it's made for a relatively easy transition and I definitely appreciate that!
Once the exam is over, the second-years have arranged a post-exam party for us down in Federal Hill, so I'll probably drag Ben to that (it's a reason for him to celebrate too - he can finally have his wife back!). I'm looking forward to a few fun school-related things next week too - a meeting with one of our career counseling Deans who happens to be an Emergency Medicine physician, a dinner with the Pediatrics Interest Group at a professor/pediatrician's house, an info session on the MD/MPP program with UMBC (masters in public policy - seriously entertaining the idea!), and my first ICM (intro to clinical medicine) small group meeting where I believe we'll be learning how to use out stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs and fun stuff like that :) So between all the fun stuff and the exam being over, it should be a good week! And next weekend we're having crabs with all of Ben's siblings - the icing on an already fabulous cake!
So that about sums up my life these days. The kittens are still alive (though they have developed a healthy fear of the spray bottle), the apartment is still standing, we're still married... it's all good :)
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