My favorite Studying Spot

One thing that I've missed being on the island is studying in coffee shops. I cannot study in the library or anything super quiet like that -- for some reason it raises my anxiety level and makes me feel conscious of everything I do. Now that I'm back in the states, I'm finally reunited with Starbucks. There are 3 Starbucks within a 5-mile radius of my house. One of them in particular is the best! It's really spacious, has lots of tables, and many people come to study. So there's a nice studying atmosphere along with subtle chatter so I don't feel like I'm disrupting everyone when I have to unzip my backpack. 

5 | 12

5 days left until Finals are over
12 left until I'm HOME!
...and 7 days left until I finally get to see the inside of Bananas!

Bananas is one of the local bars/clubs that we hang out at. I say "we", but I really mean students, because I haven't seen the inside of Bananas yet! I can't wait until next week - I feel like it's been forever since I've been out clubbing.

Some more random news:
I did laundry tonight. They installed these motion detector lights in there, and I feel like I do a little dance every time I go inside to get the lights to turn on. It's actually kind of amusing! The number of ants in our bathroom room has increased. Don't even know where they came from. But it's those sugar ants - so they don't do anything. I still don't know my housing assignment for next semester. I know that's probably the least of my worries, but I'd really like to know before I leave.

A friend from home texted me:

Friend: what's up?
Me: studying - what's up with you?
Friend: Just watching a movie, studying on a Friday night
-some more small talk-
Friend: Sounds boring
Me: It's not so bad
Friend: Studying on a Friday night. Sorry. Major boredom. 

Yeah, I guess it kind of sucks to be studying on a Friday night, but honestly - I'm in medical school! That's pretty freaking awesome. Some days, yes, it sucks to be studying and I wish I was doing something else, but most days I'm really excited to be learning all of this. I've waited so long to get into medical school, and now that I'm finally here - I love it. It's sometimes just an awesome feeling. I need to remember that when I'm feeling unmotivated...

The Last Week

This blog post will be slightly boring. Nothing much has changed from my last post, except the number of days left! :) I've been studying a lot lately with my study buddy. I'm so lucky to have her, I don't think I would be as efficient or study as much as I do with her. When I look back to the beginning of the semester, a lot has definitely changed in just a few short months. I definitely value my time a lot more, and I've learned to study. It was a grueling process, but I'm glad (or at least I hope) I've finally got it down.

Final's Countdown: 8
Home Countdown: 15

15 | 22

15 days until I'm done with finals!
22 days until I'm back home!

I've already told my parents what they need to bring at the airport: Taco Bell! Continued with a week long of fast food pleasures! Although I am going to miss the luxury of converting down to dollars. Sometimes it's nice to be worried at how much I spend at IGA, but when I convert it to dollars, I don't feel as bad. For example, one meal generally costs me around 20 EC - which is only $8. But when I'm back in the states, $20 means $20.

In other news, I did contract housing for 1 year when I signed my housing for this term. That means, I will have guaranteed on-campus housing for my first year here. However, a few of my friends have looked for off-campus locations to live. I went with them to look at a few places - it was really nice! When I think about the cost factor, it does seem like you can live comfortably well and still save around $500-$1000 each term by living off campus. While it is a good amount of money being saved, when you add up how much tuition is, it's really not THAT much. The most expensive thing in medical school is time, and I'm not sure how much time gets eaten away with living off campus. Who knows, it might actually end up saving time since you can be more efficient while on campus. I don't know...but I am opening up to the idea of living off campus. But, let's see how next semester goes. It's just nice to have a place to call "home" instead of a dorm room.

The countdown starts...

As of yesterday at 6:15pm, I have only a month left before I back in my hometown! (not leaving Grenada, but physically landing in my hometown). It's crazy how fast the semester has flown by. In actuality, it was moving quite slow for my until March - and then everything after that just seems to fly by. Every time I think about packing, and worry how I am possibly going to get all of this stuff home. I'm mostly worried about my textbooks and notes. I'm still very fond of the hand-writing-notes tactic, so I'm not too sure how to transport all of this. Textbooks alone are a suitcase in itself! This will be interesting...

Sleeping Patterns

I came across an interesting article today. These articles talk about the importance of different aspects of sleep. I had always heard bits and pieces of this information throughout undergrad from my professors, but it was an interesting read to understand the science behind it. In my current situation, I've noticed how more efficient I've become with a more scheduled/routine sleeping pattern. In addition, I've haven't even touched coffee! Imagine that!! :)

In undergrad, I remember specifically one of my professors told me to sleep on a particular topic I was having trouble memorizing. He advised to think about it while I doze off into sleep, and I'd definitely remember it the next morning. I tried it, and much to my surprise it worked! With the shear amount of information we're required to know here, it's difficult to do that for everything, but it's worth a try for things here and there that just won't stick!

New Look

I'm very OCD about aesthetics, mostly dealing with organization, design, etc. So, while I was in my low-mood this weekend, I had a tantrum about the way this blog looked. I know, stupid. But alas, I changed it up a bit. It's still not exactly how I want it to be, but good enough to deal with. I used a template I found online, and tried to edit as much as I could, but there are still many things I can't seem to fix. If you're good in coding, please let me know!

In the meantime, pardon my mess as I try to clean up as much as possible =]. Another thing, I lost all of the blog links I was following - crap! 

New Schedule

I've recently found how important it is to have a schedule. Well, I knew this already; prior to entering medical school, I pretty much scheduled my entire day. That's the only way I was able to get anything done... However, being here - it's so easy to get off schedule. Instead, I made a to-do list with everything I hoped to accomplish that day and during the weekends. In essence, that was good - it was a little less stressful if things got off schedule, but it wasn't grounding.

While studying, I get really caught up on the details (that's the engineer side of me) instead of trying to encompass the full picture. With my old-time schedule, I was grounded to finish studying a particular lecture given the amount of time. It helped to "move along", and if I was really confused about a particular aspect, I can look it up later or ask the professor.

In addition, I've adjusted my sleep schedule to how I normally function. I'm a morning person - by the end of the day, my efficiency level starts dying. So, I'm doing the whole "early to bed, early to rise, makes man healthy, wealthy, and wise!" I've been sleeping at around 11/11:30 and waking up by 6:30. Knock on wood, it's been going great this year, so I hope I can continue it in the coming weeks. Although, I really wish classes started at 8, so we had more time to study...but whatever - I can't complain about everything! haha. 

Difference Between Males & Females, (Anatomically Speaking)

Is so much harder than I thought! I thought I could tell the difference quite easily before coming into med school...

Think, again!!

My new boyfriend: Cold Coffee

What medical school does to you...
Makes you into a coffee addict.

Prior to starting med school, I didn't drink coffee; I hate the taste. I had it a couple of times in college when I really needed to stay awake, but it was literally a couple of times at desperate moments. Needless to say, I was NOT a coffee drinker. I thought it was all psychological; if you really want to stay up and study, you can.

Oh boy, was I wrong!

Within the second week of med school - I was going by NY bagels at least 2 times a week to get coffee. And pretty soon, I was needing coffee at least 5 days a week, which brings us to where I'm at now. NY bagels was getting quite pricey, so I looked into buying a coffee maker. My roommate doesn't drink coffee, so it was pretty much an investment for me. I decided against it, and went the 'Instant Coffee' route.

I still don't really like the taste of coffee, I definitely have to put a lot of sugar, which makes me question if it's the caffeine or the sugar that's doing the trick...?