Thursday, August 25, 2011

Greetings from Oz

An Italian Pathologist in a sunny land far far away (not Italy) once said to a classroom full of students, "Today we start studying the abnormal. And let me be the first to warn you, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore." And so, an email written to me by my counterpart, B, warned me on my first day of second year, that I was no longer in Kansas. For the first two weeks I waited for a tornado to come and lift my little house away to a yellow brick road, but it did not happen. Then, sometime this week, maybe today, it happened. The strong winds of Pathology have come and we are now in Oz. Forget Munchkin Land for just a minute and let me tell you about Kansas.

Last we left off I was riding mattresses down stairwells and slipping and sliding down hills while consuming inordinate amounts of ice cream. I drove home from camp to be greeted by a new apartment (all my things were moved by my family while I was away) which was heaped full of boxes and partially (mostly) assembled furniture. My sister greeted me there and helped bring order to my things. My mom came the next day, and in less than 24 hours my apartment was looking the cleanest it is probably ever going to look again. Something about studying medicine predisposes you to being rather messy/disorganized when it comes to non-school related tasks. Exhibit A: The mailbox key. In my last apartment I lost the mailbox key. I stalked the mailman and made him give me our mail (twice!) at which point he told me I was not allowed to do so again and I needed to go get a new key- good bye $20. I gave in, lamented the loss. First day in the new apartment I misplaced the mailbox key to our new place. Being the cheap resourceful person I am, I decided the only thing of importance coming to my mailbox would be bills. So, naturally, I did not worry about it for 2 weeks and then spent a day setting up online bill pay for everything. Problem solved! I'll keep my $20, thank you very much USPS. Well today I did laundry and a pair of pants that I rarely wear finally got cleaned and there in the bottom of the washing machine was the key to the mailbox! I guess that says a lot about how often I do laundry.

Okay, too much typing not enough photos. So in an effort to not study or give in to the impending doom that is second year, a friend hooked me up with Photoshop and I went to work on some India photos!
Mountain reflection in shop window. Nako, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Full Moon and Star Trails. Tabo, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Falling off a Cliff. Dhangkar Monastary

High Altitude and Friendly Monks. Kee Monastary.

He wanted money. Rishikesh, India.

Melon Stand. Rishikesh, India.

Chilling among the ruins. Rishikesh, India.

Mutual Love. Rishikesh, India.

Rishikesh, India.

No editing!

Prayer Flags

Light Features. Nako, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Nako




Neighborhood Gangster

Prayer Wheel.
These are some of my favorites, which means as I edit and post they will be less and less interesting because my favorites get worked on and posted first.

Besides photo editing, I was working on getting as much vitamin D as possible by the pool until I become a hermit, but I think the hermit thing has already happened. I also went to a little family reunion in LBI and saw some people I haven't seen in a while a long with meeting some new ones. 



This kid's a natural in front of the camera!

A real smile! Accidentally captured by the little munchkin above!
After this weekend's final hoorah in Philly it'll be exam lock down mode. womp womp

Besitos!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Places In Between

This summer came to an abrupt halt yesterday with the official "Welcome to the Second Year of Medical School" Lecture.  Sometime last week, after two weeks of no school emails I realized I changed my password without changing my forwarding password and voila, 15 new emails all about important things for the next week and year and, you know, life. Naturally, I disregarded them. At that point it was still summer. And it looked something like this:

Zoology went to the bay and found plenty of critters to play with.

 Zoology seems a lot more interesting than biotechnology mainly because they get to dissect all different multicellular organisms, whereas I get to prep labs that use E. coli culture. We did make bacteria glow using a jellyfish gene. My prep days consisted of setting out glassware and aliquoting solutions.
 But my nights and weekends make it worth it every year. Kate and I continued our adventure. Our trip to Providence basically turned into one of the better dates I have been on. We went to the mall and shopped a bit. We realized that there is not a lot we like at Forever 21 but we were filling dressing rooms in Ann Taylor Loft and digging the music selection. This was one of the first signs we are getting "old". After lamenting the loss of our childhood, we walked to find dinner away from the crowds. Yelp showed us a street with lots of Italian restaurants but I really doubted it when we walked under the 95 N overpass passing a car with a broken in window. Low and behold we turned a corner and came across a bustling street. We found a plaza that looked straight out of Italy with a fountain, flowers, and live music. The wait was 45 minutes but the hostess let us steal a reservation that looked like a no-show. Homemade pasta and red wine were just as good as the atmosphere and spectacular people watching. We laughed at the scantily clad girls strutting by our table. While I might be the same age as them, there is definitely a disconnect. I enjoyed my wine, the view, and a good friend.
 We then walked down to the canal for Waterfire which is basically piers of fire on the canal with gondolas and throngs of people. Our search for ice cream was a complete bust which is astounding given the massive amounts of families that flock to Providence for Waterfire. We decided that a traveling ice cream stand could make a killing on Saturday nights in Providence.


Staff BBQs are also a staple of my summer adventures.
A spectrum of skin tone (featuring Amber's glow-in-the-dark skin)


I got a reprieve from Biotechnology when I went with Kate's astrophysics class to the science museum in Boston. The planetarium was spectacular for napping and the electric lightning show was awesome.
Tuesday night TA-RA bonding at Colt State Park was a success even with impending doom on the horizon.








And while the sunset was spectacular, the sky looked pissed a full 180 degrees in the other direction.
 So we ditched early and got some ice cream. Did I mention we eat lots of ice cream at camp?

 Kate and projected karaoke onto the side of our building and the staffers sang the night away in celebration of the near end of camp and completing student evaluations.
Our last day festivities included a 100 foot long slip and slide full of baby shampoo (easy on the eyes) made my me and Kate. While spectacular, something about sprinting and flinging yourself on the ground makes ones body angry for several days.




 And later in the night there was mattress sliding.



This was followed by stuffing and pumpkin pie for Gaby who, being from Mexico, has never had Thanksgiving foods. Great times were had by all and the next morning was snap back to reality, pack the car, drive home to an apartment in ruins. Thanks to the help of my mom and sister, less than 24 hours my new apartment is looking great. Pictures to come!
So while summer may technically be over, I'll be skipping class and hitting the pool and trying to hold on to my youth as long as possible, even if I like the music at Ann Taylor Loft. I'll happily live in the somewhere in between.