Halloween my costume is here to stay

I don't do Halloween. I don't have anything against it, I just don't do it. I can eat candy whenever I want and I have no desire to dress like anyone else. But you'll say you can buy flowers for anyone, so why Valentines day, and give thanks to the Lord any day so why thanks giving. Ok ok I get it! there's some history involved. I STILL don't care for Halloween. Truth is, I am terrified of all the horror stuff and haloween creepiness (the cobweb decorations that ofcourse have a spider somewhere on them, which happen to be my least favorite things in the world, dead or alive, or EVEN a stuffed spider made out of rainbow colors. I DON'T CARE!) It's just all too much.

I actually make sure to get home early on Halloween.

This year however, I have taken part in the celebration, coincidentally. I had been contemplating getting a hair cut for a very long time now and me being the WUS that I am about it actually never got around to it. BUT this past week I just had it with my hair! I needed it to be different. Something more manageable, something cute, maybe a style that will grant me less bad hair days with my lazy ways and oh...MAYBE...MAYBE even something that will allow me to jump out of bed and jump into a pair of jeans and jump on the bus (that's a lot of jumping, but all these ideas got me excited!!!) So I just went ahead and did it. CHOPPED IT ALL OFF! Free at last. No hair.

Ok there is some...but barely, I bet your brother has more hair than I do, my brother has more hair than I do. Now if I had a nice webcam or a clue as to how I could take a picture and download it on my little notebook, you would be able to see for yourself. But since that can't be done (not now anyway) while I'm laying in bed all tech disabled as I have always been...I'll just tell you...it's more hair than no hair, but less hair than any hair. So I can say I have more hair than anyone balding but I dare not compare myself to anyone who has any hair. haha!

I love it!

That said...this new look makes me look like a 12 year old boy, with all seriousness. So today I was dressed in my ripped jeans, vintage coat and loafers and didn't recognize myself...this I figured was like MY HALLOWEEN COSTUME. While it gives me a rather masculine look, my feminine features can be mistaken for a boy who has not yet hit puberty (teen - thirteen - get it?) But I am too tall for a little boy which just makes me look like a tall 12 year old.

I plan to walk around with this costume until maybe next Halloween. I bet no one shows more love to Halloween than that (I'm not competing with people who have to wear costumes to work).

Life on Hold

This is to all five of you who have visited my page to see if I posted.

I'm sorry I have not had anything exciting up here in a while, but my life has been on hold. I don't react to my daily encounters like I used to, thus no inspiration to bore you with a list of things I did. It's a bit depressing really. It's been three weeks since my interview and I have not heard anything. Although it does make me feel better that no one else who interviewed that day has heard back (thank you SDN for all the amazing updates and directions). I still can't believe we have to wait a long painful month before hearing back - next week IS IT!

I thought they had said 2 weeks, but apparently it's 3 - 4 weeks. When I found out I was both relieved that my not having heard back didn't mean rejection, but still frustrated to be waiting another two weeks (now just one).

Also, my birthday is on Saturday next week, and I would hate to spend the day thinking about a rejection. So....UGHHHHH! this is truly painful.

No excuses

I know I've been MIA for the past week, but I meant to post (honest). There's just nothing exciting going on. I might even be bored. My leg has healed, school is OK (not interesting, not challenging - no exams, no big papers) and the HeLa book is great. So I guess I have just been taking it one day at a time, immersing myself in my new book, or a sudoku puzzle.

So yea, no excuses - I'm not posting because there is nothing to post (you do realize this is ALL ABOUT MEDSCHOOL right?)

Is no news good news :'( I can only hope.

A great day!

I ate healthy all day...(I know you're thinking, who cares...please don't leave just yet)

A dear friend of mine got her first Medschool acceptance c/o 2016. Love you hun...so freakin ECSTATIC for you. Hard work pays off! You are living proof.

Also, also.... I am now hooked on another amazing book (mind you I read only the first few pages-3 to be exact, but don't forget I'm an optimist :) For those of looking for a good read, here it is. 

Amazing!!!! DAY!

Healing

It's a slow process, one that requires lots of patience. And for my ankle hopefully the weekend was just enough time, for I have left my crutches behind this morning and I hope to be back to my normal pace by wednesday.

I am super glad it is just a sprain. I know I've said that over and over, but not being able to walk as I please, having to take the elevator, not being able to go to the gym...is killing me (inside).

While we are on the topic of healing, I thought I would share that although this is not the first time (in my four year stay here in the U.S) that I have had a health issue (I refuse to use the word sick) this is the first time it did not make me feel homesick or sad that I am in such a situation. If there are any FOB  foreigners out here reading this and thinking, I would feel homesick if I was all by myself and had a health issue. My point here is that, it heals. You know that sore spot that hurts every time you get a sore throat or a back ache or a bad day, or even a bad quiz grade (yes bad grades used to make me homesick) WELL! it heals. Take it from me. I was expecting to feel a bit of homesickness...but to my surprise - NOTHING! not a tad. Believe you me, I checked. I sat in my room quietly and searched my soul for that sore spot. It's gone.

This is definitely a discovery worth celebrating (maybe I'll jump up and down once my leg heals).

Day 3 on three

My leg appears to be healing, or maybe it just looks that way in the mornings because I keep it elevated all night. But I'll tell you what will not heal even way after my ankle's better, my left leg. It's essentially carrying the weight of my whole body. And even more painful than my left leg is my right arm/armpit. It feels like it's about to fall off. So glad it's the weekend, and so glad I didn't break a bone (which would take much much longer to heal).

Here are things I observed in my half a day of disability at school yesterday:

It took me 1.5x longer than it usually does to get around
I don't know where most of the elevators are located in the school buildings
Everyone notices and almost no one makes eye contact

And you would think that my slow speed would make getting around easier, although less bearable. BUT NO! I was sweating, just trying to get from my bus stop to my house. It's exhausting.

Walking on three

I never thought I would walk on three so soon (referencing that riddle/question (whatever it is) about how when you were born you walked on all fours, then you walk on two, then you walk on three.) Well today I walk on three. I sprained my ankle, I think. Since we all now know that I am not athletic, or that if I did do something sportive I would proudly brag about here, my injury has a rather embarrassing story behind it.

I was in the student union building at my school where I keep a lock full of my gym stuff along with my books (all of which I have not used at all this week), I eagerly grabbed my gym stuff and was text walking down the stairs (always feel nervous doing it, but I had been teaching for 2 hours and I had a ton of texts to reply to). Then...then....

I FELL! My ankle just decided to teach me a lesson. I was in the ground in a minute. I am very grateful that I did not hit my back or head on anything. Once I was on the ground I started to shake my head and smile at my stupidity and how I knew this would happen. I just always knew. Anyway, I just got up...shook my body, checked everything: all is well except my ankle. Then just walked back up the stairs and put my gym stuff back in the locker and went home.

I didn't really think much of it, until I woke up this morning with one very sore ankle also swollen if I might add. I guess my initial reaction to my ankle pain was, ignore it and it will go away. But nooooo....it was here to stay. I hate being sick, and not the sick feeling, but just that I have to miss classes and maybe work and stuff. I hate hate it. I spend all my time trying to be early doing everything, then BOOM, one second of lazy ankle and I spend all day Thursday at home at my desk.

I need to come up with a good excuse for everyone that will ask "what happened?" tomorrow when they see me on campus. Don't you think?

and life goes on

I love Yanni

Have you ever heard Yanni's "One man's dream" or "In the morning light"? If you HAVE NOT! please check them out before you read any further, you will thank me.

If you are still reading and thinking who is Yanni, then you are probably not into classical music. But if you are into classical music, and you really have not heard of Yanni. Then you're welcome my friend, you will soon be as obsessed with this genious as I am. I'm not really obsessed, I just always turn to him on nights like these when I know I will be up reading pages and pages of stuff that I will not even need to remember a week later.

I just sat down to write a lit review for a paper that is due tomorrow at 11:00AM, I have not read any actual literature YET, hmm...actually I have not found the material I have to read...YET, which I will search for once I find the introduction I wrote a month ago, because I sincerely do not remember what the paper was supposed to be about. I am in for a long night. Thus Yanni, and some diet coke, and some nuts, and fruit.

Argh

The interview

It was not as stressful as I thought it would be and once it was done I was so very happy it was behind me. No more talking to myself and rehearsing lines, lines that I did not use at any point in the interview. I am not in anyway implying preparing didn't help. But the most helpful part was knowing the topics I wanted to address and some key words that will help me get my message across.

Some of the q's I got were things like: Tell me about yourself? Why Meharry? Why medicine? Would you specialize and if so what? those sorts of things, I would not say I had any questions that took me off guard. I did however get one question I almost prayed I would not get, the where do you see yourself 10 yeas from now question. I dread that question. But I knew that they might throw it at me. So I don't think it was all that bad. 

Overall the interview was good. The school is great. It is really a school with a real family feel. The staff was nice, my interviewer was nice, and the students were very supportive and friendly.

Now I wait. 

I am still exhausted from having to spend most of my Sunday in the airport where I thought there would be wifi (I do not consider wifi that lets you look up only flight information and the weather of that nation, free wifi, to me that is NO wifi). Anyway, although I have a lot more to say about this wonderful experience. It really was awesome being in Nashville. I didn't think it would grow on me so fast, the whole small town thing, but it did. I really hope I get in. 

later ya'll (practicing my southern accent) 

]

Please save me from what you would have done differently

After my post yesterday followed by some more preping for my interview, I spent my entire afternoon shopping for a travel bag, and all other travel necessities along with an actual suit case (a case for my suit, because unless I wanted to carry an iron with me, which I will also have to buy, that is how I want to take my suit. Yes the suit did come with a case, for those of you smart people out there wondering why I have to buy one. But I threw it out. And I refuse to being called any synonyms of stupid, I know you are cooking in your head while you read this, because I have already gone through a week of bashing my head about it).

so then I got home and found out that the suit case I bought does not have a zipper, it has the actual zip on the entire suit case thing, but it doesn't have a zipper, so nothing to open/close the zip with. I mean, how do they even make things like that, do they make a zipper, zip it up and then take the zipper for future use on other bags, or do they sell zippers/zipheads or whatever you call them, separately? I spent six dollars on nothing, well not nothing. I actually spent 6 dollars to have someone dispose of a suit case I already had and now really really need. Super!

It took me a few minutes to get past that, but then I thought, my nice medstudent host, might just have an iron. I hope. So I just focused on preparing for the interview for the last time before bed. But I was too hyper to sleep, and I didn't even have any coffee yesterday I swear. I was just nervous I guess, although I kept telling myself I was not; there is no other explanation for it. Therefore, I ended up getting to bed around 1:00AM, which led me to dismiss my alarm clock when it went off at 4, I simply dismissed it. 

This is one very important and often disastrous fact:

Sleepy Emnet has alot of will power TO SLEEP! I slept through a Mammalian Physiology Exam last semester, after staying up until 4:00 studying for it and deciding to get 3 hours of sleep before the test. No matter how important something is, when my brain is woken up after 2-4 hours of sleep, it forgets everything else and only continues to sleep. That's just how Emnet sleeps. 

This morning it could have cost me everything I ever woke up early for. At 5:00AM I woke up to a loud knocking on my door and realized I must have slept in (see: I get 5 hours of sleep and I know why I am awake, it comes to me. Same thing if I get 2 hours of sleep or less, I wake up and remember why I had to be awake). My friend who is also my ride and at 4:00AM like I warned him to was at my door yelling my name.

I am now awake and frantic! I put on my clothes, shoes, grab my stuff and walk out. 

We get gas, which took longer than usual because we first parked on the wrong side (gas tank opposite the pump), then the pump we parked at did not work (for Lord knows what reason). 

So it's 5:20 and we are on the road. We actually get to BWI fairly early, considering we left so late. Let's just say we drove at a steady above-limit-speed (I will not say what speed exactly, just because it is not advisable to drive as fast as we did and I would not want to give any indication that that saved the day, because it really didn't). 5:50 was not early enough. I know DUH!
But they did have a 6:30 flight, which cost me just $50 more. God always rewards my hope and optimism. So I boarded that one and I was off to ATL. 

In the plane I was thinking, ROUGH MORNING! But nothing else can go wrong right? WRONG! I forgot my coat in the car. My suit coat. The one I need for my interview. The one I bought for my interview. 

Definitely an FML moment, what to do now?

At this point I just started thinking, are these signs or something? Because I also left all my liquid, which broke a lot of my norms for how I normally go out to face the world, with lotion, chapstick and on occasions like these my mac foundation. I didn't know about the 3.4 ounces rule (anything below is fine). Oh Joy! It just makes my morning merrier. 

I'll admit I am a klutz. 

I just sat in the airport thinking of other things that could go wrong. hmmm...let's see. Plane Crash? naaa, cuz then I'll be dead and won't care about the interview haha (I might still care, if the dead could care).

So I just spaced out and took a break from thinking about what if's and bad lucks. Then I put my ipod on, blasted Cold Play and decided to take break from this madness. After a few deep breaths and some well thought out plans I arrived in Nashville and met my host, who came with a friend and really helped me turn my day around. 

I am sitting in the Meharry Medschool library right now, and I feel like I should be doing something to make up for all the classes I missed. so let me get to it.

More updates later

Nerves

My nerves are out of control. Ay ay ay!

Anyway, here's something sweet I found on the presendential charge for the 2007 MMC graduates:

“Be humble,” the minister counseled, “as you make daily decisions that spell the difference between life and death, always remember you are the created, not the creator!” “You belong to the universe, but you’re not the center of the universe.” “When you enter a room, don’t say here I am … say how can I help you? In other words, seek to serve, rather than to be served.” “Be care-free, but not careless. Learn to manage the inevitable stress that comes with the territory.” “Exercise, meditate, sit beneath the sky and wink back at the stars. And, yes, pray…pray for strength, guidance, and wisdom because each one of you will be tested - relentlessly - every day of your professional life.”

That's just my favorite part, you can click on the link to see the entire thing.

Wish me luck
will update soon

Post Midterm Jitters

I have not been this hyper in two days. I've actually been feeling kinda shitty, it probably has something to do with my getting only 4 hours of sleep two days in a row (that's just 2 less of what I need to feel normal, and 1 less than what I need to barely make it through the day without coffee).

But now I have post Exam Jitters :D

I had two midterms one each day, and now it's all over. No more exams. Not for a while anyway. But there are still some very important things to get out of the way, like my very special appointment on Monday (which  I have yet to prepare for) and then all the Monday school course work I will need to make up for.

So life does go on! :(

Although right now it feels like it should be the beginning of a summer break. You know what I'm taking about, that feeling when nothing really matters anymore, when everything you did for a 24 - 48hrs was about that one thing and now it's done. Yea...THAT'S the feeling I'm talking about.

I left my last exam a bit early. Although this usually does not happen, especially in an upper level course where the questions are all open ended and annoying and always leave you feeling like you can say just a little bit more or maybe until someone tell you "you got it." (words of reassurance that you will not hear until God knows when you get the exam back). But yea, I left early and as I walked out I watched not some, but all of my fellow classmates think long and hard as they tried to articulate their well thought out responses in a manner that will make the grader go, OMG! who is this student. Because come on, let's face the facts, nearly everyone in that class is a senior and some sort of Biology, Chemistry or Biochem or even better (tougher if you will), Bio or Chem-engineering majors. More than 70 precent, and nearly all of the bio majors are either Pre-med or Pre-Grad school. And these are not made up facts, most of us know each other (in this class of about 200 students). We recognize each other from other similar classes, and from these facts (you'll have to agree here because this is as factual as this will get) we can infer that everyone has studied their bums off and are hoping to be the reason for a curve (the very top of the curve). Not even sure if there is a curve. Oh well.

This ends the first quarter of the semester.

I lied

I am such a liar, it is not my pre-med ways that have socially handicapped me. It is simply who I have become.

Exhibit A: This weekend
I was supposed to study for my two midterms next week, and it's now 6:00PM on Sunday and I have re-written my notes and highlighted all the important concepts but I have not yet absorbed any of it. That did not take all weekend, I mean it kind of did, but it could have all been done yesterday. But here's how I do things, I start studying, then I get hungry, I eat and read a blog, then I try to study, but I'm all full now and feeling good and just want to enjoy my lunch for a half hour or so, so I decide to watch a few auditions of X-factor on youtube. This takes me atleast an hour, yesterday it took me two. So then I get back to studying but out of the corner of my eye I see the sudoku on yesterdays paper laying on the floor and get all excited. So I pick it up and work on it (this one is hard, I almost never finish the hard ones). So I stop and hit the books, but now I'm hungry again...do you see where this is going.

I really hope I have a much more productive night.