Monday, June 25, 2007

Limboland

Well I am back in the states, cooling my heels in a Comfort Inn in Miami waiting for Shade to arrive on tuesday. She had to fly on a shipper rather than with me on American because American has instituted an embargo on pet flights. She is staying with a kind friend who will put her on a plane on Tuesday and she may even fly directly here without experiencing the joy of San Juan airport as I did.

I looked for a cheap car to rent and got some strange upgrade for the cheap price and so I am driving around Miami in a strange 4 wheel drive cherry red humvee wanna be kind of vehicle A dodge Nitro. I feel a little bit like I am profiting from ill gotten gains, but the thing is only costing $20 a day

Basically I am bored enough that I googled a picture of the rental car to share with you. I have had several novel experiences after 11 months out of the states. I went to starbucks. I had a venti soy chai (as god intended) I have eaten both a nectarine and some cherries. Tv is the same. I have been to a couple of malls, but they seemed more overwhelming than enticing, and I find myself wondering how people who live here deal with the constant onslaught of stimulation.. and then I realized I used to be one of those people.
Medical school is changing me. Living out of the US again has changed me. It is difficult to put my finger on how, or to provide a rubric for you my dear old friends, but I know I am irrevocably changed by the last year and a half, and will continue to change.
The nice thing about being stuck here is that it gives me some re-entry time. To relearn context that doesn't haven't anything to do with constant study, exams or whether the grocery store has milk or eggs that week.
There are stories to tell, I am looking forward to telling them.. and hearing some stories in return.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Path

See that stack at the left. Those are my notes. For one class. For one term. That class was pathology. It is done now. Whether I made it through with my sanity intact is debatable. I should probably apologize right here and now to my parents who would faithful call me every week even though I was frequently grumpy and totally lacking in what Jane Austen referred to as "conversation."
But in the long run, I made it through this term and my grade point average should even go up a little, if not by a stunning amount at least I am not staying in Grenada an extra term. Pictured below are some of the fine folks who made it all possible. This is what pathology lab looked like. (and no, there is no requirement that you wear a white tee shirt and jeans or shorts to pathology lab, its just the unofficial SGU uniform) Three or four days a week I would get together with these ten folks and we would each present one or two or three slides that had to do with the material we learned. The afternoons were long, we were all tired. Sometimes the tutors sent to help us were kind, sometimes they were not. But my group was always kind to each other, well prepared, humble and inquisitive.
What little sanity I have left is thanks to them. And to my ever steady and kind study partner Chris, who cheered me through every melt down.. of which there were not a few.
My next to last exam is tomorrow, a clinical skills exam and I fly to Miami on Sunday, shade to follow on Tuesday. Then on to Albuquerque on Thursday next.
I have that flippy floppy feeling in my belly that tells me big change is on the horrizon and that is not hard to see, one more term here in the Caribbean and then it is back to the states to study for board exams and then off to clinicals. I am looking forward to some day in the not so near future to finding a comfort zone and staying there for a little while for once.

Monday, June 04, 2007

No comment.....