It's way more studying than you think it's going to be...

Well then, how did it get to be October already?

Block break is in twelve days. (!) It's been a heck of a block, it feels like undergrad on steroids - biochemistry, skeletal anatomy, genetics, immunology, microbiology, pathology, and some actual "how to be a doctor" classes involving taking histories and all that jazz. And that was just the first 9 weeks.

It's interesting living 300 miles away from everyone you know and being forced to adapt to a new environment and a new group of people. You make the best of it. You try to remind yourself that the days may be long but everyone says the years are short. And then there's the people who try to make it funny. I had a professor tell us that while we might have worked very hard to get in to medical school, we were going to have to work just as hard to get out.

The best way that I can put it when someone asks how it is... well... it's medical school. I'm very happy to be here and I feel very fortunate to be having this experience...but it's also sort of terrible. I basically study, sleep, go to class, and take about 5 hours a week for myself. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depends on how much I get done in a day... but yeah. It's way more studying that you think it's going to be. And before you know, you imagine that you can't possibly study that long - believe me you can.

My coping mechanisms involve food. I cook a lot. On my light weeks, I will go on monster cooking marathons, making whole big family dinners every night and freezing all but one portion for some "future impossible day." This has made things so much better when it comes to those 'terrible weeks' with four exams.

I've also been going to the gym a lot - it's where I watch television and don't feel bad about it. I use the gym at my apartment complex because they have free WiFi and it's like fifty feet from my door. It seems impossible to get out of it with it's location.

I talk to people back home and they remind me who I am. It's easy to start to lose yourself in an attempt to fit in and make friends. You find a few people that you connect with - you complain, you share, you giggle about the most horrible things, and then sometimes you just cry. I try really hard to limit that, but sometimes there's just no getting around it.

But overall, it's somewhat like I expected it would be. But yet not, if that makes any sense. Anyways, back to the biochem in preparation for tomorrow's exam. And maybe making cookies.