Week Two

I cannot believe that I am finished with my second week of medical school. The volume of information is extremely high but not too difficult yet. However, I do not feel like I have been studying properly.
Friday, we had a Study Skills Workshop, which I think was very helpful. So, this weekend I have put that advice to work and it has been a very productive weekend.
To celebrate a productive weekend, I had my first cookout at the apartment. I made steak with much thanks to Grammy! It was quite delicious!
I have one week until my first exam which will be very long, and cover a lot of material considering we are taking 9 classes this block.

This week I am going to study very hard and hopefully be very productive so that I can go to my Family Reunion in Wilmington this weekend. I cannot wait to see everyone, but of course I will be missing PopPop greatly!

First Week of Medical School!

Well, I am done with the first week of medical school and about to begin my second week! It was a great week. Just got my feet wet, thinking we will dive in deep beginning tomorrow.

The difference between studying in undergrad and studying in medical school - no free weekends. Otherwise, it seems to be pretty similar. I will see if I am actually doing the right thing on our first test coming up on September 8 - 5 hrs long or so. I am not really looking forward to that.

I did make time this weekend to go to dinner with some friends (Emily, you are an amazing cook!) and I went to the movies this afternoon (Julie & Julia). I cooked chicken for the next several days to make into different meals, and am planning on making spaghetti later this week and inviting people over. After seeing Julie & Juila, I feel like I need to get Juila Child's cook book and make some of those recipies (they looked absolutely delicious on screen!)

I have tried three churches now. Two contemporary, one traditional. I think I am going to have to go back to traditional services, I have missed it ever since leaving Wilmington.

Well, I guess I should get back to studying.
Tomorrow, 8 A.M. begins my second week of medical school!

Tubing - One Last Day of Fun!

Today, I went to New Life Christian Fellowship, a church in downtown Blacksburg with Paul and Erin. It was a great service and the sermon was thought provoking. I really enjoyed it, but I think I want to go to a more traditional style church service.

This afternoon, I went tubing down the river with a bunch of fellow VCOMers at New River Junction. We had a good time riding along the slow paced river and banging into several rocks (the water was very shallow in areas). I think most of us got a few scratches or bruises, but for the most part we made it out in one piece. :)

There were a few very mild rapids which were fun to ride along, and at the end was a big rock where you could stop, climb, and jump off into a deep pool in the middle of the river. This was a nice area for swimming and relaxing, too. The hardest part was getting back across the river to get out at the road (the current was pretty strong at that point in the river).

Unfortunately, there are no pictures. I don't have a waterproof camera and it was too difficult to try to take it out there even in a waterproof bag. I have lots of good memories of things I wish I could have captured on camera!

I start medical school in the morning, so this is probably the last great adventure for a while. :(

More Fun!

I made it through orientation and met lots of great people. I think this is going to be a wonderful year. Wednesday evening, I went to Brittany's to run through the booklist and order some of the 18 books on the list. Yesterday, I went bowling with Jenie, Caroline, and Jo! We had fun trying to make a total combined score of 400, and finally on the third game, achieved this goal!

Disclaimer: I know I am a terrible bowler, but I have lots of fun doing it. I actually made a decent score, for me, on the second game, but have no picture to prove it. :)

Today, I went to Roanoke to the Science Museum because I saw that it was free! It is right in the middle of Roanoke City Market which is awesome, too. I had lots of fun acting like a child in the Science Museum, and then I walked around the City Market and saw lots of wonderful fresh veggies and neat crafts for sale. You could definitely spend a good part of the afternoon in Market Square.

In this area, there is also a History Museum and an Art Museum. I will definitely have to go back to check these out as well.

Cascade Falls

Today I went to Cascade Falls in Giles County, VA with a group of classmates. It was a great hike up to the waterfall, beautiful scenery the whole way. I have, however, decided that a 4 mile hike while still recovering from the flu, not yet acclimated to mountain air (having lived my whole life at sea level), and with bad knees and no knee braces, is NOT the best idea I have ever had. But we had a lot of fun, and I would definitely do it all over again.

Here are a few select images from the day:

The guys minus Caleb.

The beautiful waterfall at the end of the trail. (I couldn't figure out how to rotate this picture in blogger, suggestions?)

Another view...

Relaxing at the waterfall pool.

Unfortunately, my camera batteries died once we got to the waterfall, so I have no pictures of the adventurous hike back to the car in the rain.

Fun Around Town...

Today was a great day!

This morning, I went to get my VCOM Passport (a.k.a ID) made on Virginia Tech's campus. After this, I decided to take some time and walk around the campus to see if I could find the library and some other buildings that I might be utilizing during my time here at VCOM. Well, the map I had was horrible and unlabeled other than a select few buildings, but I was able to find my way around to the library, the drill field, and back to my car without backtracking at all. Praise God I inherited my dad's good sense of direction!

This afternoon, several of my future classmates and I ventured around downtown Blacksburg to the annual street festival "Steppin' Out." It was much larger than I had imagined and we had a lot of fun. There were about 12 of us. It was a great opportunity to get to know everyone and see some of the local arts and crafts, listen to musical talents, and get fresh air! We were highly entertained by the hulahoops and the booth with the wire figures (especially the renditions of different medical specialties). I think I am going to go back tomorrow and stop at a few more booths.

Then, this evening, we all went to VT campus for bowling and billiards. Tech has a great indoor recreation center in the student union! My high score in bowling was a magnificant 60!! - in spite of my semester long bowling class in undergrad - sorry coach.

Well, that was a very full day. I am almost done organizing my apartment and cannot wait until that is completed.

Four (4) more days until Orientation, nine (9) days until my FIRST DAY of MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!

New Apartment, New State, New Friends

I moved into my brand new apartment on Friday, July 31 with the help of my mom and dad. We, however, had an unexpected turn of events when I signed in with the apartment complex that afternoon. I was asked, "Did you know you are moving into a handicap apartment?" Of course I did not. I had my choice of units when I came in March/early April to find a place to live. The apartment complex had an entire, mostly unrented building that was not even completed. Once I decided on my preferred floor plan they told me which apartments I could pick from. I was not allowed to see this actual apartment at the time because the did not yet have the Certificate of Occupancy for that building and there were inspectors on the property that day. We had many conversations from that point on, both via phone and email. At no point was I told that this was going to be a handicap apartment. To make a long story short, the floor plan on this handicap apartment made it much smaller than what I was expecting and much too small for the furniture I had purchased. Thankfully, they were nice enough to work something out with us. And, I actually like the apartment I am in better than the one I thought I was getting, in some ways. I am now in a two-bedroom apartment, but they have closed off one of the bedrooms so that I can still pay the one-bedroom price.

Before my parents left, we arranged all of the furniture and unpacked most of the boxes. I do, however, still have some boxes to unload and a lot of organizing to do. Unfortunately, I have been sick with classic flu-like symptoms since moving up here. I am starting to get better, but still have respiratory symptoms. Not sure it was actually the flu, but I am glad to be getting better. I feel like I have missed out on many adventures my classmates have already taken, but tonight I was finally able to get together with some of them to meet and talk for a little while.

Tomorrow, I plan to finally finsh unpacking the last few boxes and organizing. Then, Friday or Saturday, I am going to Steppin' Out, Blacksburg's annual outdoor festival. This sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Hopefully, I will be able to do a lot and meet several more people over the next few days before orientation begins next Wednesday.