Kelsey: “Remember when we thought we were going to fail the head and neck exam?”
Me, forming a wistful expression: “Ah yes. Those were the good ol’ days.”
I thought that once the Anatomy block was over, life would become simpler. I would awake to the sound of birds singing while they prepped my shower, and the neighborhood squirrels would help me get dressed while the fluffy bunnies from the forest would cook my breakfast. This fantasy was eviscerated on the morning after our last Anatomy exam when we began the Cell Block.
I’m getting ahead of myself again. Let’s step back a couple more weeks…
*Wayne’s World-style flashback sound effect –doodaloodaloo—doodaloodaloo—doodaloodaloo…*
Although head and neck anatomy (Anatomy unit 3) had the most difficult material to master, in the end I (and many others) performed the best on the exam/practical in comparison to the other two units. There are 3 reasons for this: (1) Our anatomy lernin’ skillz improved significantly over the Anatomy block, (2) The exam was (I think) designed to be slightly easier given the difficulty of the material, and (3) I partnered up with Kelsey—the most symbiotic learning relationship I ever could have imagined. Thanks to her, we pulverized the exam—and ended up getting the same score! Imagine that.
The Cloud 9 we were riding started to rain the next day and we fell through it, hitting the ground hard as we began Cell Block. I thought it would be a comfortable review of undergrad basic sciences. It’s so much more than that. Some of the broad topics include bioenergetics, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, carbohydrate metabolism, histology, pathology, and a high-powered review of biochemistry. The subject matter isn’t hard. There’s just a lot. And the lectures—on the whole—aren’t half as interesting as the anatomy lectures. In other words, given that the anatomy lectures put me to sleep, these lectures are coma-inducing. Many students have elected the “IP-ISP pathway.” Translation: they’re in the Integrated Pathway Program, but stay home and podcast the lectures (hence “Independent Study Pathway” hybridization).
Even though I (and everyone else, from what I gather) am lagging behind in my digestion of the material, I’m still making room for fun and staying on top of my extra-curriculars. This past Friday I went to Cheesecake Factory and a movie (Zombieland—hilarious!) with Mike. We also went to gymnastics the night before. I had been aching to go for months; it felt good to do some flips again.
My Pilates classes at Goodwill are going well—much better than I anticipated. I have more people attending each week, and they want to record me so the satellite locations can engage in the class as well. Weird? Yes. Flattering? Yes.
I’m desperately in need of a break, and so is everyone else. I can’t wait for Thanksgiving so I can see my cats again—especially Chopin! I miss him so much! Oh, yeah--and family too, I guess.
I’ll leave you with this picture of my Halloween costume that I took with my computer’s camera. I broke my digital camera (Long story. Too mad to talk about it...) Anyway, I was a Star Trek StarFleet Science Officer. Science officers wear blue. I like science. I also like blue. Hence, in the words of Spock, it was only “logical.”
