Midterms

So since my last entry, I've taken a couple of quizzes, had my interviewing final, went to a phi rho hot tub party, and attended med school prom. It has been a good couple of weeks. Of course I've been studying a lot. For a while there we had a quiz every monday which basically meant a test so every weekend was study time. I did however find time to attend the traditional phi rho hot tub party. Apparently every winter phi rho rents hot tubs and puts them in our parking lot. It was interesting. I guess i don't really understand the appeal of being really warm from the waist down and really cold from the waist up all at the same time. So basically I went for an hour or so and got bored and watched 30 Rock with my friend Erica.

Last friday was the Medical School Winter Ball but we called it med school prom. It was a cool event because all four years of med students attend and it was held at the radisson downtown. They had open bar and people walking around with trays of appetizers and a live band. It was a lot of fun to see everyone all dressed up. Even some of the professors came and I noticed they were in the drink line pretty much the entire time. I went to eat sushi before prom with some friends so that was good. Though I had to carry my soy sauce in my coat pocket for the rest of the night so that was slightly awkward. I also saw a girl I went to high school with and hadn't seen since graduation. She apparently is married to a 3rd year med student and is finishing up some other sort of medical program. It was great to see her though it was extremely random.

The big news for the next 2 weeks is that we have midterms. So yesterday we had an interviewing final which was a bit scary since we haven't had any practice for 3 weeks and before that we basically only did 4 interviews total. I like to be prepared for these things and I didn't really feel that I was because more practice would have helped. But apparently all second year we interview different people every week so I should get lots of practice then. But anyway, I still passed the interview final and did pretty well though I still have things I need to work on. Next we start learning the physical exam which should be even more awkward but we practice on our fellow students instead of fake patients so maybe it won't be that bad.

As I said we have 3 big tests next week with Microbiology on Monday, Physiology on Wednesday, and Neuroscience on Friday. I've been studying a lot already going to coffee shops for many hours for the past two nights since I realized that our micro test is on 330 pages of material while the last quiz only covered about 90 pages so I need to memorize over 200 pages in the next week. We are getting into some gross stuff too. We have started learning about individual bacteria and what diseases they cause which are often accompanied by really disturbing pictures. So that is fun and also scary. The only good thing about midterms is that we don't have micro lab anymore so I get some of my afternoons back! Also, Mallory made me promise to come home after midterms are over so that should be nice. I feel like we should get a long weekend since midterms are so stressful but we have class on monday. I think I might still hang out in fargo until monday afternoon since they tape all of our lectures and I can watch them later and at a faster speed. Okay well, back to work I guess until I get a project runway break tonight. yay!