Le Choix Multiple

The downside of an expensive private school education over the years, and a major during my undergraduate years, although at a public University, that involved writing – no bubbles to be filled in, no eeny, meeny, miny or mo, more like….say what you know, try not to b.s. too much and if you’re articulate about it with a well constructed argument, there’s you’re “A”. Let’s not even get in to the fact that I went to Tisch for graduate school….

Enter- life at St. G.: EVERYTHING is multiple choice. You’d think – wow, Simrun, that’s GREAT, right? I mean, all the correct answers are sitting right in front of you.

Nope.

I think I get overwhelmed at the possibilities or that I let them put ideas into my head that weren’t there before. Instead of staring at a blank page eagerly awaiting my prose, I’m looking at options that were intentionally put there to confuse me. On occasion, they seem like clever suggestions. Then, I have to pause – which I hate doing – that whole slowing down thing is excruciating for me. I start to hear the Jeopardy theme song play in my head as I toy with the end of my pencil.

Ultimately, I did fine on the Biochemistry quiz and in Anatomy, but what kills me is that it would have been PHENOMENAL if I didn’t act like a kid in a candy store when I see answer choices of all varieties sitting in front of me just itching for the honor of being bubbled in by yours truly…..

By Thursday night I was incoherent and discovered that by 8:15 PM I literally couldn’t put a sentence together properly. So, like any sane person, I marched back to my dorm room, plopped myself in front of my laptop, and started watching Ugly Betty episodes on Megastic like a champ (yeah, in case you were wondering, that is what I was actually doing instead of going out with my friends and drinking like a normal post-exam student).

Was still pretty tired on Friday, since I didn’t actually get all that much sleep between my Ugly Betty marathon and the gym in the AM. I did, however, still manage to make it to Fish Friday in Goyave for a pretty awesome dinner experience.

Fish Friday is like a street food fair with almost nothing but seafood and fried goodness. A friend introduced me to one of the most deadly desert combinations I’ve stumbled upon to date: Nutmeg ice cream coupled with a fresh, hot, piece of fried bread. It’s like eating a warm doughnut with unbelievably creamy and delicious cold, nutmeg flavored perfection. I also splurged on lobster, which I’m glad I tried, but to be honest, it wasn’t all that grand. The coconut shrimp, however, is perfection.



I’ll now leave you with that thought, since I’ve just made myself hungry again…..

Time Management

One down, hundreds more to go....

I had the most glorious dream last night. I lived in a sprawling (although somewhat dilapidated) apartment. It was like the rooms just never ended – one after the other with no particular order and it was MINE ALL MINE! Muahahahahahaa……

Then, I woke up.

I saw the shoe box.

My eyes landed on my still slumbering roomie.

Okay, it’s not that bad.

In the real world, I had my first exam at SGU on Thursday in Abnormal Psychology. For the record it went beyond swimmingly. On the other hand….it was Ab psych – not quite the same as Biochemistry. That comes in a nice little package on Thursday morning, preceded by Anatomy Wednesday evening, followed by a lifetime of exams to come.

In the most random moments, I find myself having flashbacks of my “old life” in the biz. This may be partially brought about by the fact that it’s Fashion Week in New York, and since I feel pretty disconnected from the world these days, I find myself visiting the NY Times website far more frequently than usual. There was a pretty stellar video interview today with Michale Kors.

Sigh.

I wonder if any of the people I used to work with would even recognize me anymore if they saw me walking down the street. Then again, who cares?

I’m off to learn about muscles. . . . .

Invisible Elephants

The beginnings of that isolated, “I’m on a semi-remote island” line of thinking have begun. Rationally, you know that they’re coming from the moment you arrive, but then when they actually do enter your brain, they are disturbingly comfortable there.

It’s not like there aren’t plenty of other people around – all of whom, mind you – are in the same position. But, it’s not as if we sit around and talk about it (perhaps we should be) or maybe it’s the elephant in the proverbial room situation. No one wants to admit that they are fraying first.

I’m not sure actually.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly busy. My whole day is scheduled hour by hour starting at 5:30 AM when I wake up and go work out. Seriously.

It’s these nanosecond intervals during the day when I pause that I realize……there’s no TV, no itunes, no downloadable entertainment of any kind, no Peet’s coffee, no car, supplies of various sorts are lacking at random, things don’t work and the repair person may or may not come by before the end of the term, I live in a shoebox with one other person, I’m surrounded by water, and I may not make it out of Foundations to Medicine and in to term 1 med.

There!

There’s an elephant and I think it’s pink.

Ugh

I know I said I had, “nothing to complain about” earlier this week, but I’ve changed my mind. I DO have something to complain about. Or maybe, the heavens are mocking me for eating out two nights in a row when I could have easily made myself dinner. Instead, I ate at the local coffee shop- Mocha Jumby. Last night I ordered the cheeseburger.

Big mistake. HUGE.

I spent the night vomiting, breaking out in sweats, and having diarrhea alongside the vomiting. Awesome. Did wonders for my figure though (I hope you can read the dripping sarcasm there).

I just don’t understand why I seem to have such issues with the food on this island. So, now that I’m still tired, weak, and a tad nauseous I get to go listen to a lecture in a German accent (totally adorable btw although as I mentioned contributes more than a tad to ear strain in my old age) about ECG’s and the lovely system of pumps and pipes that is our heart and it’s components. Hopefully, I don’t vomit or otherwise embarrass myself in front of aforementioned adorable Swiss German professor (I actually don’t know if he’s Swiss for sure, but in my head he is from the German Alps, and has his own flock of goats. This is supported by the fact that he is prof. from the Vet school, not the med school)

On the upside – It’s Friday! Not sure quite what that means for me yet, other than a vague memory that that’s supposed to make people happy.

Observe. Happy face has been dawned.

Bottoms up.

It's Another Beautiful Day In Zamunda!

For some reason, I could not get that line from the movie Coming To America out of my head this morning. I looked out the window after my workout and it was pouring. Then I started laughing to myself as I heard Arsenio Hall’s voice in my head saying to Eddie Murphy, “Good morning your highness - it’s another beautiful day in Zamunda!” I guess I was laughing at my own absurdity, because I have no reason to complain.

I had lunch with a truly awesome second termer yesterday who has been unbelievably supportive of all the island newcomers. It’s incredible that in medical school, people still find time to go out of their way for you. Afore mentioned second termer writes a pretty terrific blog as well. Check it out.

My watch is “stuck” in military time. I have no idea how it got there or how to get it out. But then I have to smile, because it suits the boot camp metaphor of my current situation beautifully. I’m getting used to subtracting twelve between the hours of 1:00 PM and midnight. Great for the mental math skills, which as many of you know are HORRENDSOULY lacking (small reflection of that issue in my MCAT Physical sciences score, but I guess that’s old news). Let me just add before moving on however, that I think it’s absurd that all along in your pre-med education you can use a high tech calculator that can even manipulate the equation for you so you can skip out on the algebra of it, but when it comes time for the MCAT it’s cruelly ripped from your bosom.

Okay, done with the MCAT angst session. Repeat after me: “I love the Caribbean. I love the Caribbean. I love the Caribbean……”

Excellent.

Now, back to biochem. Thanks for tuning in to our commercial break.

‘till next time campers…..