White Coat Ceremony

We finally had our white coat ceremony this past weekend! 

(Running a little late)

Eagerly awaiting those white coats.

With my mommy.

Workin' those white coats. (Don't we look legit?)

It was such a wonderful day. Especially since my two best friends from high school ended up driving to Dallas just for this occasion. It wouldn't have been the same without you guys (more pictures to come!) I'd also like to give a special thanks to everyone who's helped me get to where I am today (you know who you are :). I couldn't have done it without you. <3

The Little Things

Sometimes, I think we're taught from a young age to expect the worst in the people. From the early warnings of not taking candy from strangers, to the self doubt that we feel when we are alone and on our own, to famous quotes saying "Always expect the worst and you will never be disappointed", its easy to think that the world is a harsh and lonely place. But sometimes, people can really surprise you. 

I was feeling kind of down today. Blame it on the hormones or the four and a half hour long CPR training session this afternoon, but I was so ready to just go home. When I got to my door, I saw an envelope wedged beneath it from one of my neighbors. Now, keep in mind, even though I've been in this complex for about two months already, I haven't really had the chance to meet anyone on my floor. So, of course the first thing that popped into my mind was -- oh crap, my neighbor's probably writing to tell me to stop playing the friggin' guitar and singing so late at night (which I admit, am guilty of on numerous occasions). But it wasn't that at all. A couple of days ago, I had seen an older woman walking down the hall with a bunch of heavy bags and I helped her to her door since we were going the same way anyways. She told me about how she had come to help her daughter who had gotten sick and was at the hospital. I didn't think much of it. Well, her daughter was the one who had written me the note. It was really simple thank you for helping her mom when she was sick, but it made my day knowing that something I did (something that I thought was so insignificant) was actually appreciated. 

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, the little acts of kindness that you do in your everyday life doesn't go unnoticed. And people rarely react the way you expect them to. Even though few people may actually verbalize their appreciation for your actions, it's still there. I'm not saying you should go out way to be nice, or just be nice to get thanked. Instead, it's what you normally do that makes the biggest impact even if you think it doesn't. I think a better quote to describe what I'm trying to explain would be "Hope for the best, expect the worst, but always be prepared to be surprised."

Rain Room

The Barbican's Curve Gallery in London currently has this amazing installation. It's a rain room that allows visitors to walk through without getting wet. Rain pours from the ceiling, but cameras with sensors can map human movement in the room and send instructions for the rain to fall around the people as they cross the room. Doesn't this look amazing? Makes me want to hope on a plane to London. right. now. :) 

Lymph Notes

Interview season has started up again at UT Southwestern. Every Friday and Saturday, I see people dressed up in black suits and high heels walking around our campus. It feels so weird to see them because it feels just like yesterday that I was in their place. 

I have to admit, Southwestern has a unique interview schedule. Interviewees start arriving Thursday night/Friday for a mixer and welcome interview dinner on Friday, and then the actual interview and tour is on Saturday. I'm pretty sure it was the only school that I interviewed at that had its interviews on the weekends. The schedule works well because everything is spaced out and organized and nothing feels too rushed. Also they feed you!! (and by you, I mean me AND the interviewees :). 

Earlier in the semester, I tried out for the acappella group on campus. I was really surprised when I got in since I didn't really have any previous acappella experience. As part of the Lymph Notes (get it?), we perform at the interview dinners pretty much every week. I finally managed to get a copy of a video of us singing today and thought I'd share it with you guys. The quality isn't the best, but the sound should be fine. We're working on a new song for next week, so stayed tuned! 

Keep Calm And Carry On

Easier said than done. Biochem exam tomorrow. Wish me luck...

Fried Mushrooms

My friend Jo's boyfriend came down from CT the other day. They were super sweet and invited a bunch of people over for a homemade lunch. We feasted on pasta and this raspberry-accented salad, but my absolute favorite dish of the day were these fried mushrooms that Jo's boyfriend whipped up. They were delicious -- not too soft, not too crunchy, and cooked to a golden perfection. On my way home that afternoon, I bought some mushrooms of my own and decided to try to make them myself. It took me an extremely long time, mostly because I forgot what the recipe was so I had to go by trial and error (and unreliable recipes from the internet). They turned out well in the end though. Here's how to make this dish in four easy steps:

Ingredients

Flour

Garlic Salt

Pepper

(any other herbs you want to mix in. ie basil)

White mushrooms (sliced)

Oil (or butter)

Step 1: Wash and slice mushrooms.

Step 2: Mix the flour, garlic salt and pepper in a bowl. Dip both sides of the mushrooms in the mixture. and make sure it's covered evenly on both sides.

Step 3: Add oil to a heated pan and carefully place mushrooms in. Flip mushroom slices occasionally to cook on both sides.

Step 4: Yum. Enjoy your masterpiece. 

Dear Blank Please Blank

My friend Brooke clued me in to a hilarious website yesterday. It's called Dear Blank Please Blank. Not exactly the best idea when you have a biochemistry exam coming up the next day, but a perfect way to procrastinate otherwise.

Some of my personal favorites:

Dear humans,

You get mad at me if I wake you, and you get mad at me if I don't!

Sincerely, confused alarm clock.

Dear self,

My wallet would appreciate you not walking into a grocery store when your hungry.

Sincerely, I swear I just bought half the store.

Dear icebergs,

Sorry to hear about the global warming. Enjoy the Karma...

Sincerely, the Titanic.

And of course:

Dear wife,

If it's a boy we're naming him Chandler. If it's a girl, then Monica.

Sincerely, an avid F.R.I.E.N.D.S fan about to have a child.

Top F.R.I.E.N.D.S. photo from Vanity Fair.

Magazine Coasters

I've always been into arts and crafts. Knitting, drawing, DIY projects --you name it -- these are all things that I wouldn't mind spending hours and hours doing. Over the summer, I happened upon a great book called Playing with Books at Anthropologie. There were some really beautiful paper projects, but sadly, most of them were beyond my level of expertise. However, I remembered this one particular project that seemed doable -- it was making coasters out of recycled sheet music. I decided to try it out and make some of my own out of magazines, glue, and bobby pins. It's fast, cheap and easy. Want to see how to do it?

Dodgeball

Dodgeball is the official sport of UTSW. Every semester, there's a tournament between the different colleges. Cary, Estabrook, Fashena, Pritchard, Seldin (the best!), and Sprague face off in an intense week of dodgeball-sanity! I was so pumped for my first game on Wednesday! Let me tell you what happened though...

Ode to the Brachial Plexus

Oh, Brachial Plexus,

You are such a menace,

With every reckless twist and turn,

You make my brain and stomach hurt. 

Who in their mind can remember your names?

Ulnar, Median, they all look the same!

One day, I will work up the nerve,

To remember the way you look and your curves.

By CeCe Cheng, MS1 trying to survive Anatomy

Have a great weekend!

Hello my dears, do you have any fun plans for this long Labor Day weekend? I'm looking forward to a s'mores party tomorrow night with some friends, even though it is supposed to be about 90 degrees outside. Hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing time. Here's a song to kick off your weekend!

Time lapse photograph of fireflies by Tsuneiki Hiramatsu.

Physicals

Today, I realized something: I have no idea what I'm doing in medical school. I mean, don't get me wrong, I know why I'm here (to 'help people' -- duh ;) ), but actually having the skills to put that into action...well, let's just say I'm at step -1. 

At UT Southwestern, we have this thing called Colleges. Basically, what happens is the entire class of 240 students gets separated into six different Colleges (named after previous distinguished UT Southwestern faculty) by an impartial third party observer. (If this sounds familiar, please see below). 

We're separated into small groups within our college and each group meets with a mentor every Wednesday to go over clinical skills. My small group met with our mentor today to go over basic vital signs, in particular, how to take blood pressure measurements. Let's just say I had no idea what I was doing. Sure, I've 'volunteered' before in places where I had to take blood pressure readings for patients, but those experiences were few and nothing compared to the anxiety I felt for having to do it in front of a real doctor. Plus, it didn't help that no matter how I oriented the stethoscope/sphygmomanometer (the blood pressure cuff), I couldn't hear anything from the volunteer's arm (..."it's amazing...you're alive, but I don't hear your heartbeat!").

Well, turns out that I just wasn't pressing down on the arm firm enough. Who knew?

As luck would have it, I ended up volunteering that afternoon at a back-to-school sports physical check up event for a local middle school. It was the perfect opportunity to practice my new skill (or lack of skill). But it didn't really work out, since there were a lot of other stations. I did learn how to listen to the heart/lungs, do a musculoskeletal exam, and an eye exam though! I felt really proud. Almost like 1/10 of an actual physician.

Next goal: find the heartbeat when measuring bp. I will work on it.

Fruit & Vegetable Juices

When I was in NYC this summer, my friend Lianna took me to this amazing juice bar in Brooklyn - near Williamsburg. Now, I have to admit, I'm not a very big juice fan, and my experiences with juice places is...limited...but, this juice bar was much better than I expected! The thing is, they had some really unique mixes of fruits and vegetables in their juice selection that I never would had thought to combine. For instance, one juice was a mix of carrot, apple, and pineapple. Another, had ginger, carrots and oranges! I was hesitant about diving in with one of their fruit AND vegetable drinks, so I just got one of their fruit juices (which was still delicious). However, this past weekend, during a much needed study break, my friend Adina and I decided to have a juice party!

Here are two juice combinations that we came up with:

Celery + Pineapple (the mix of the two is soo good! It doesn't taste like celery or pineapple...more like pinelery or celapple).

and 

Guava + Pineapple (we both love pineapple :))

Both juices are super easy to make. All you have to do is put the ingredients into a blender. Add ice, water and sugar (occasional taste checks are encouraged) and blend until there are no more clumps. 

New Lunch Idea

It's been two weeks since I first started medical school and I love it. However, that's not to say med school does not have its challenges. Not only has it been quite an adjustment getting used to the courseload, but it's also been hard to figure out how to live a healthy lifestyle (I mean, in undergrad, I lived on campus and never had to cook or clean -- well, maybe occasionally :) -- or pay my own bills). Although it might seem like a small detail, one of the most challenging things for me to get used to was bringing my own lunch to school. At first, I brought leftovers from the night before. But I soon realized that it took half of my lunch break just to heat up the food because of the lack of microwaves in the cafeteria. I wanted to see if there was a way to pack a lunch without having to go through all that trouble and came across this brilliant idea: Mason Jar Salads.

A True Love Story

Oh my goodness. This is the most heartbreakingly beautiful story I've ever heard. Real life Brooklyn couple Danny and Annie recount their twenty-seven year long marriage from their first date to Danny's last days with terminal cancer. It is simple and real. The way true love should be. You have to watch it!

Video from Storycorps. There are many more amazing clips!

First Day of Medical School

Today was my first day of medical school! After spending the entire weekend listening to the MS2s (2nd year medical students for those who aren't yet up-to-date on the medical school hierarchy lingo) and faculty tell us that 'medical school is like drinking fire from a hose', I was definitely a little nervous about starting classes today. (plus, it didn't help that the very first course we start out with is Biochemistry). But you know what? It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! Sure, I got confused a couple times throughout the hour-long lecture, especially when the topic turned to pKa's and acid-base chemistry (the bane of my existence in college, sadly), but overall, the topics were pretty understandable. True, this is only the very first day of classes, so it's not really an accurate measure of what the next two months will be like. I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune come next week when we have our first exam -- eeks! 

Here's to not failing out this semester :D 

Also, interesting tidbit, we started out the class today with a lecture from one of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine -- Dr. Bruce A. Beutler. He was recognized for his research in innate immunity just last year! Do you think this could count as a celebrity sighting? I mean, I know he's no Joseph Gordon Levitt, but his work in the field of medicine is pretty inspiring.

Photo of Woody Allen from filmfanatic.org.

Moving Day Part 1

I have big news...

Tomorrow, I’m moving to Dallas! My dad is helping me move from Cincinnati to Dallas by driving this gigantic 14 ft Uhaul, while I follow lazily in my little car. According to Google Maps, it is 932 miles and should take us about 15 hours. Think we’ll make it by Thursday afternoon? 

I think my mom is worried already. Note last night’s conversation:

Mom: You drive carefully, k?  Follow dad’s car, don’t go too fast. Leave 10 ft between cars (because I know exactly how far 10 ft is). and stop every two hour for break.

Me: Don’t worry mum. I’ve done this before (a total lie, since I’ve never driven more than an hour or two at a time before, but I’m just trying to calm those maternal nerves). Plus, I had practice today when we drove from the Uhaul dealership back home!

Mom: Yea, yea, but still, be careful. follow dad’s car. and don’t get lost. just follow him!

Me: I will, I will! Plus, if we get lost, I have my handy-dandy gps with voice navigation (it’s the mapquest app if anyone is interested and it’s life changing).

Mom: WHAT! nonono, don’t follow gps. follow DAD. who knows where you end up with gps. Then you both lost! Aiyouu…(a common asian sound with a meaning somewhere along the lines of “how could this happen” and “lord help us”).

Me: …

So I guess the moral of this story is: follow the gps dad.

Wish us luck! 

Monopoly

How sweet are these monopoly pieces on this color coordinated bookshelf? It adds just the right touch of whimsy, and the best part is, anyone can do it! (I'm sure we all have an old monopoly game set lying around somewhere...). I remember trying to learn how to play monopoly when I was little. $200 just for passing Go? Yes, please. I never got past buying the properties, and the idea of adding hotels and houses still confuse me. But I do remember I was adamant about being the thimble or iron every time I played. Which were your favorite pieces?

Monopoly photos from Pinterest.

Hello There.

Chances are, if you're reading this, you probably know me (at least a little bit). If not, you will! I decided to finally start this blog after mulling it over for about - oh, years (seriously, can I be any more indecisive?). And since I'm just about to start a new chapter in my life, what better time than now to begin? So, let me skip all the formal introductions and start off with some fun (or maybe not-so-fun, depending how you look at it) facts about myself.

(That's me on the far left with some of my good friends from college!)

1) I love Friends. The people that are there for you no matter what AND the T.V. show. Is there anything better than sitting around Central Perk gossiping with your five closest friends and not working? I think not. 

2) I don't like chocolate.

3) I love the smell of coffee, but can't stand the taste, which is why I rarely order anything whenever I go to the local Starbucks or Peets. However, I am more than happy to spend my whole afternoon there immersed in the sweet aroma of ground coffee beans (I'm sure the people working there must think I'm one of those lurkers just there for the free wifi).

4) I always sing in the shower. always. and it's nearly always the same 3 songs - Dream a Little Dream of Me by The Mamas & the Papas, Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer, and Baby it's Cold Outside, a la Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrel in Elf - I do both parts ;) ).

5) I'm really bad at riding bicycles. le tragic. 

So anyways, this blog is my outlet. A place where I can talk about life and all the ups and downs that come with it. If you're not too bored yet, stick around. I'll try to update often and keep things interesting :)