Two down, one to go :)

I am almost willing to admit that Block 2 is over. The gut twisting feeling of wanting to throw up after one exam, but holding it all together for the next 4, 3, 2, 1 is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I remember after block 1 walking off campus, skipping to the beach, and feeling the weight of the world off my shoulders. Walking out of Leeward on Tuesday, I felt as if I had an elephant laying on me.

While I the worst was not the result, block 2 was my reality check, where studying 18 hour days, one (maybe 2) meals, and 4 hours of (I should be up studying) sleep were not enough-you can't know everything. I'm not ever going to be ok with that. Still, I didn't do poorly enough to pack my suitcases tomorrow and head home, so I'm trying to pick up the pieces and start focusing on block 3-which started Wednesday morning.

Two weeks ago, we had a post on our school site asking for student volunteers to be SMU ambassadors and give perspective students tours if they come to visit, or to simply be an outlet for email questions. I decided to volunteer, and found out last week that due to the enormous number of applicants, our director of student services was going to have us fill out applications. Yesterday, I found out that I was chosen as the 1st semester SMU ambassador, as there is only one per class. I gave my first tour today-not a lot of training time!-but it went very well and I find that I'm very good at talking about places where I do what I love.

After some rocky waters, I have decided an alternative apartment for living next year. I'm going to check it out tomorrow, and will take pictures and post them this weekend. Every day is still really hard to be away from home. I can't tell each of you how much every little gesture makes my day. I hope all is well in the states, more updates to come this weekend. Its supposed to be 88 here on Saturday, and people here have never heard of snow!

Still alive

Just wanted to update and let you all know I'm still alive! It is 2:47am Cayman time (3:47 NY), but I have received several voice messages, emails and posts int he past days wondering about my whereabouts. Tomorrow (today, in fact) and Tuesday I have my next set of blocks. Histology and Patient-Doctor tomorrow, two Anatomy exams and Embryology on Tuesday. I promise after to write again, and make some phone calls because no Michele Cella, I could never be avoiding you.

I just wanted to write quick because I realized today that it was the 26 (now the 27), and the 25 is my Aunt Jadwiga's birthday! That marks one of my favorite ny/undergrad memories, and I'm sorry I was two days late, but I hope it was great Aunt Jad! Whether it was sporting events or graduations, or even anxiety attacks on the thruway, you have always been there. I hope to hear the cha ching echos in the Caymans tomorrow night!

Angels

One of the best things that has ever happened to me involves my placement in my freshman residence hall at Brockport in August 2004. It was there that I met seven girls who have since completely changed my life. They are the friends who appreciate me for not only the positives, but love me with all of my flaws.

We all are originally from new york, and there is about 4 hour drive between all of us when we're visiting home. Since summer 2005, we have kept up with chain emails, telling funny stories and many times, the hard stuff too. We've been separated by study abroad, marriage, and grad school. The last time we were all together was May 24, 2008, and there isn't a day I don't long to walk down the hall and watch movies & laugh all night with them.

3000 miles away, from California to Watertown, I can't tell you how many days these girls keep me going. I rarely open my email inbox at the end of the day without 5+ emails. When someone doesn't write for 3 days, we assume they have fallen off the earth.

This weekend, they became my first friends to download skype and with Shamil's webcam, I saw three angels this weekend. There is nothing like talking to your best friends face to face, they were in Cayman with me, and I in Buffalo with them. The sadness flowed after goodbyes, but for 45 minutes, they have motivated me for days and days to come. Thank you Ang, Rach, and Kate, you know the deal...all the way to the moon.

A lot to say...

I feel like I have a lot to write about today, but not a lot of time!

First, I made a decision last week that I think a lot of people will consider to be very crazy, but hear me out. I decided that while I'm here, I am also going to begin graduate school and get my M.B.A. Our school has an agreement with Davenport University, in Michigan, and when I'm done with my clinicals and applying for residency, it will be one more thing to add on my CV. I only take 2 classes per SMU semester, both for 6 weeks each, one at a time. I will have to hand in homework and comment on others work. Having an MBA leaves options such as hospital administrative and chief residency positions.

Second, I have an embarrassing story. I decided to make a review for my embryology course for block two. I take information from the slide shows and tutorials, and compile one document to study. Embryo is a 2 credit course, which our professor is new at teaching, and honestly-is not very good. So, I made the review to help myself, and asked him to look it over. He came up to me the next day in his cute little Indian accent and told me how great it was. Then, he asked me if he could give it to the class, as several of my classmates have been complaining about the amount of material, and I only put it into a 3 paged document. Yesterday he announced in class that it is on our Angel system, and I think my face turned hot pink. My friend Ashtaad asked me how it felt to have 150 people looking at me. Yay for embryo though, I can't wait to be an OB!

Four of my girlfriends and I have decided on an apartment for next semester. It is a two bedroom townhouse, but the rooms are huge. Downstairs we have a kitchen, eating area, half bath, and living room. Upstairs we have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a HUGE walk in closet. The upstairs is carpeted, which is SO nice because the only carpet we have in our room now is the bathroom mat. Best parts: its 200 yards from campus (instead of 2 miles), fully furnished, cleaning ladies, pool and gym. And the beach is across the street!

There is so much to tell, but so much to study. I will write again soon, I hope everyone is doing well!

Crazy Critters

Blocks are in 17 days. If you flip back to my post about two weeks before block 1, same life is going on. The past two nights I have had a total of 10 hours of sleep. I did however, go for my first cayman run yesterday on the beach with Shamil, as the sun set. After, we jumped in the pool in our sports bras and shorts, and found complete content in the fact that the stars in Cayman were over Orlando and Warsaw too.

Tonight on my way to church, I met tourists in the taxi from Biddeford, Maine. I asked them if they knew my dear friend Lily Morin, the allstar who scored two goals for BWS this week. They didn't, but I was still really happy that they were from the same town.

I decided it would be good to write about the crazy animals on the island, as I don't think I have yet. If so, my apologies. There are stray dogs everywhere on the island. At the grocery this week, there was a dog fight in the parking lot. Also abundant, are chickens and roosters. They are also found in the large parking lots, and Shamil and I often laugh on our bike ride to school, because we cant see them, but the roosters are crowing the whole way there. The lizards on the island come in all sizes, from the size of my pinky finger to the size of my entire leg. There are sand crabs... white ones that blend into the sand. I think I killed some on my run yesterday. The med students in the suites always talk about the frogs there jumping on them, and I had my first encounter Wednesday night, when I was walking back from laundry and a frog decided to hop onto me. I say this with love, when I say I acted just like my sisters would. I screamed and flailed ridiculously, like the little thing would actually hurt me. Last, there are the ants. We have had our room exterminated, and they just keep coming. They are weird ants that stagger, basically like drunk ants, and its a good time I have very little time to eat, because they certainly eliminate my appetite.

Besides the critters, there are people here who are starting to mean an awful lot to me. One of my guy friends called me yesterday, because a situation happened at home and he "felt like I was someone he could confide in". My girls and I are looking at places to live next semester, and I couldn't be luckier to have a close nit group in a really difficult time for all of us.

A taste of the states!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend :)

For all of block one, I studied for my exams with my friend Sarah, from Michigan. Her parents came down to visit after our exam, and Friday night they took me out to dinner. We went to a really nice restaurant on the water, ate fish, drank wine, and talked about the states. We wanted to know what was on TV and happening in sports land. The best part, however, is that her dad is an obgyn. So, I asked him about his practice, his daily routine, best and obviously worst moments. He told me, "when you deliver your first child, you'll know if it is what you're meant to do." We talked about specialties within OB, new procedures, and basically I was just eating up all the words he had to say. He was on a team of physicians to deliver the first IVF (invitro fertilization) quintuplets in the US 21 years ago, which I thought was awesome! Sarah told me today sorry for his blabbing, and I reassured her that I actually loved it, I have already met my first OB connection!

Shamil went home to Orlando this weekend to see her grandfather, who has become ill since we started school. She came back Sunday night with homemade chocolate chip cookies, and little gifts for all of us, basically whatever we had asked her to borrow! Shaz got Tupperware, Sajitha a muffin pan, and me, nail polish remover & cotton balls. Her grandma thought they were strange gifts, but we were all thrilled!

The other really wonderful part of my weekend came yesterday, with calls from both my sisters. I love hearing about the leaves changing, lives in the states, and family gossip. It made my day when you called, thanks Mar and Choo! I also ended my day the way I would recommend for everyone, with a good talk with miss Emily Lottes. For those of you who don't know her, she was my roommate junior year at Brockport, from the metropolis of Avon, and I think she'll be famous some day. My roommate was giving me weird looks as Im laughing out loud at my computer screen, and I went to sleep very happy last night. Thanks Em!

I have actually allowed myself to breathe the last few days, even week since Block one last Monday. Now, I need to get back in the swing of things. Its a marathon, not a sprint, and I continuously imagine the finish line and all of you there! Miss you all.

Rain Month

October is the Rain month in Cayman. It rained a lot in September, but for about ten minutes, followed by sun and 100 degrees. It has rained every day in October, always for most of the day. Makes studying easy, makes missing the pink room & always having someone to watch a movie with in undergrad, a lot harder.

It is still hard to believe that block one was this week. It was an absolutely insane experience, and I'm 3 1/2 weeks from its encore! Not having class today, is a nice surprise though..I slept in until 9:30!

I decided to write today about my friends here, as my favorite moment in Cayman happened Thursday night. Everyone back home knows me as a simple girl, who has a lot of fun doing nothing and being surrounded by people I love. As I've said, it is hard here to trust people, because you don't know them, and because of the competitiveness of Medical School. Everyone wants to be number one.

I was lucky enough my first day in Cayman to get lost on the way to the grocery store with my roommate, Sajitha, and we met two other girls, Shazia and Shamil. After the grocery store, we all had KFC as our first Cayman food. Since, I can always count on the girls to be there during homesick times, bad news from new york, and good news as well. When someones late to class, or we haven't heard from them all day, we check up on each other. Thursday, we bought this simple 30 minute chicken and biscuit dinner, made it and sat in our room talking about childhood memories, why we want to practice medicine, our families, and big fears we have on our roads to our dreams. For two hours, we didn't talk about school, exams, or anything having to do with Cayman. We're Christians, Muslims, and Catholics. We're Indian, Pakistani, Puerto Rican/Cuban, and Caucasian. We're focused, distracted, shy, crazy and loud. I am so blessed to have these girls in my life.

Here's a picture of my fav four the first weekend at dinner. Next to me is Shaz, across Shamil, and diagonally, Sajitha. On days I think I'm crazy for leaving all of you to come here, they are my reminders that God always takes care of us.

A fresh start!

I have officially survived my first medical school exams, and am happy to report that I will not be coming home due to failing out after them. The days are like a blur, but the nervousness was ridiculous, and the exams exactly what my professors said they would be. I am very pleased with my scores, but I was hoping for those results after all the time I put into studying!

After our last exam yesterday, my friends and I bought a six pack and traveled across the street from campus to the beach. Two of the girls I was with hadn't even walked to the beach yet, had never seen the water. As we're standing in the ocean, my friend Shaz comes over the hill of sand, and says, "we lives here?!" Everyone laughed. Standing there with people from South Carolina, Florida, St. Louis, Michigan, Ohio, California, and the UK, no one really said anything, nothing had to be said. I wanted to pause everything-very very good moment on the island. Thanks to everyone in the states for all your instant messages, voicemails, emails, and away messages, I could hear you all cheering even with thousands of miles in between. I am way too lucky.

Today, was back to reality. After five minutes of talking about the exam, we started new lessons in histology and anatomy. Relaxation only lasts for a bit! Below, I finally have pictures from my first swim in the ocean. I can't believe its October already, happy birthday Janelle and Courtney Klee!!