National Museum of Art
I went to the Smithsonian yesterday with my friend Eddie. We also went to Adam's Morgan and Dupont Circle. It had been ages since I'd hung out in DC! I love the Smithsonian and got to see some of my favorites. The greatest museum I enjoyed the most was the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. I loved it! Also, the Picasso Museum in Paris was great. I went there twice, I think.
Anyway, today my aunt and I are going on an urban hike in Bethesda... probably to the bookstore or something. I've spent a whole day knitting with my sister in law and my brother made his famous gumbo for lunch. Yum! Tonight, I have movie plans with a friend from high school. I've been hitting the gym every other day or so, including 3 hours of cardio every week. This has been a lovely break! In a few days I leave for CA and am most excited to hear about the fresh snow in the Sierras!
We are the Champions!
Joe came for a whirlwind visit to Philadelphia. It was great to hang out, as we do once every few years. Bonnie, Marvin, Joe and I all went out for a nice dinner last night. This morning Joe was running his Hawaii photography production company from here in Philadelphia via cellphone, as I was packing my stuff for trips to Virginia, San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. We had a philly cheesesteak lunch at the Art Museum Restaurant (yum!) and then ventured by foot over to Rittenhouse and South Street.
On the way home, we had to stop over to the Art Museum where we each took a dash up the steps and played champion for a split moment of glory, like Rocky Balboa once did back in the 1980's. I don't know if that was my initiation to Philadelphian citizenship, or if it just permanently branded me as tourist, merely passing through temporarily on the swervy road of life!
After Joe took off, I met up with Emily and we hit the gym then went over to White Dog Cafe for dinner and hot apple cider toddies. mmmmm! We decompressed from the semester and are preparing for each of our visits to see family down south. In the morning I'll load up the car and go see Mom and Dad. I can't believe Christmas is here, already!
I spoke to Justine tonight and am counting down the days until I head out to SF. She's going home to see her folks and then both of us arrive in SF on the 3rd. Perfect timing! I'm looking forward to it. Hurray, vacation!
My new favorite picture!
My friend Brent took this of me and it's my new favorite picture. Thank, Brent!
On Monday I take my genetics final. I debated not taking it, because I have an A- in the class if I don't take it. But then I discovered that an A- at Penn is only a 3.7 instead of a 4.0, so it sort of lit a little fire under me to reclaim the rest of that 4.0. Am I nuts? Maybe. Perfectionist? Occasionally. At this point it actually feels more like a game than anything else. It's fun!
My new latest friend is this great girl named Emily. She moved here from Seattle and she's a lot of fun to talk to. We've both got priorities shifted in the similar directions and keep good study habits together, which we augment with trips to the gym to break up with day. It's nice to have someone to laugh with and it makes studying go by quicker. She introduced me to a new study spot on campus with really great eating options on the lower level. While I was there, I ran into three other students in my genetics class. We sat for a good hour and jammed through some review. I'm feeling good about the material, but I need to have everything down solid.
It's 2am and this is a little bit of a late night, post-study babble. I've had more coffee over the last three days than I've had in the last three weeks. But I feel great!
I think something died in my room! It must be in the heating vent. There is a repulsive odor in my apartment, though it's only noticeable as you come up the stairs or sit at my desk. Perhaps a mouse? So, I've kept the windows open and we turned off the heat. I hope whatever it is magically resolves. It is revolting, whatever it is! But I don't have much time to deal with it at the moment. Apparently, Josh came by to check it out while I was gone and he didn't smell anything. It figures! Jenn and I can smell it, but guys don't tend to have real keen olfactory perception.
I'm excited to see my friend Joe, who is coming to visit on Wednesday. It's been a year and I'm looking forward to catching up and spending a day in Philadelphia once my exams are done, exploring the city and having some fun. I get to play hostess! Though I'm pretty sure he's been here before.
I better get going so I can start fresh again in the morning. Only one more day to go! Tomorrow I meet Emily on campus, bright and early for an all day study extravaganza!
Food art made for me by Ryan at Mugshotz!
The guy at the coffee shop got a little bit creative today, when he made my veggie, hummus and pita plate. It was cute, though the camera phone picture does not do it much justice! The colors don't look great, but in real life it was
truly art. :)
This week, Mugshotz has been packed with people studying for finals. Biology to my left, anatomy and physiology to my right, art history sitting next to me, medical student on my other side, and law student in front of me. The cafe is my little portal, on a study day, to spend time with people instead of staying home alone everyday until the end of finalsm which gets to be a bit much. There's an unspoken rule that you don't speak to someone focusing on work in a study cafe. But when someone else takes a short break at the same time as you, you get to visit a little bit and then get back to work. It's nice... it's like a living room of friends who are all studying, too!
Studying for finals
Today, at Mugshotz this girl kept staring at me. Everytime I walked past or looked up, she was studying me. The only thing I could think of was my sweatshirt-- Black, Fillmore-22 bus. Maybe she was from San Francisco. I certainly didn't recognize her. We didn't ever talk, but she was sitting at a table with another girl and a cute guy with pink hair! As the cafe closed, I began talking about skiing in Tahoe and where I was from, with another guy at a different neighboring table, who was from Santa Monica. On the way out of the cafe, I told pink-hair guy that I liked his hair and he said, "Thanks. Hey, I'm from California, too"! I guess he overheard my conversation with Santa Monica guy, named Patrick. I said flirtatiously to him, "Yeah, I figured!" He laughed and we parted. I wonder what he was studying... He was very preppy looking (aside from the pink hair)-- great haircut, beautiful wool sweater, nice glasses... could be a law student, like a lot of students at Mugshotz.
You don't see bright, unnaturally dyed hair much in Pennsylvania. I think in Philly it is pretty safe to consider that any cute guy with a pink hair that actually looks pretty good, is from California! It's funny that everyone sitting at all three tables around me were California transplants, all of us studying at Mugshotz.
Photo shoots and finished books
It's the most wonderful time... ahhh! The snow is really doing it to me. I decorated the house today and am feeling most
festive!
My roommate Bonnie got me a contract photo gig, this week. It's a nice sum of cash at the right time of year! I'll be doing the photo shoot for the website that she's designing. Today, I went to Home Depot to buy lights and then to the craft store for all the props, paper, and accoutrements. I'm loving it! It's been such a long time since I've put a shoot together. I've got the wonderful bubbling of creativity in my head. Maybe that's why I've been so upbeat and happy!
I just finished reading
The Time Traveler's Wife. Ehhh... it was alright. I wouldn't highly recommend it. It was too corny and sappy. People were raving about it and said how they cried while reading it...
huh? I rolled my eyes, more than it tugged any tears.
But now I'm reading
The Secret Life of Bees. Now, I think
that's a pretty cute story. There are a lot of elements that make it a pleasure to read. The character development in it is terrific, whereas the characters in
The Time Traveler's Wife were unmemorable. Some of the phrases and monologues in the book are brilliant little tidbits that I've thought about writing down. Just good, healthy, loving ways of looking at the world. The story is through the eyes of a young girl, who runs away from home in South Carolina around the time of the Civil Rights Movement. You get a little taste of the socioeconomic flavor of the South, while brushing up a bit on the practice of keeping bees. It's fun and interesting. Nothing mindblowing, but certainly more entertaining than the back and forth nonesense of
The Time Traveler's Wife!
Besides all that and studying, I've been downloading music, like mad! Now that all the spyware protection, firewalls and virus guards are set-up on my computer, I've been using SoulSeek to surf out good tunes. If you're a user too, find me! "audramill". I'll give you privs to browse my music file, which is rapidly expanding!
Snowing!
Tonight was gorgeous! The snow put me in a really happy mood. I was practically skipping to class and couldn't stop smiling. The Christmas lights are wrapped around stair rails, leading up to homes with pretty, snow covered wreaths on doors. Our class was let out an hour and a half early, because of the snow. Now that's the way to start winter off right... a snow day! :) I met up with my friend Joe for drinks near my house at a cozy, favorite spot called Bridgets. Things are so very quiet! It's great. A few months ago I was pacing around, going nuts feeling like there was nothing to do and I was crazy for leaving my life in San Francisco. It was a hard adjustment from the lifestyle of active social life to concentrating on myself and school. I was grumpy and impatient for all of the little adjustments and missing the way things were. Now I'm very relaxed, happy and also glad to have my trip to look forward to. The best of both worlds! A little variety in store for my trip to SF in January. I'm pretty certain about plans for a trip to Tahoe with my friend Peyton and then hopefully a trip to Orr Hotsprings with the girls! It's funny how quickly time goes by and how interesting the past couple of months have been. Honestly, I can't complain!
Mom came home with a tree!
The joys of being close to my parents around the Holidays... we got a Christmas tree! The house smells so pretty and it feels so good, since last year I couldn't come hom. Tonight my Oma is coming over to have dinner with me and my parents and then off to Amtrak I go to catch a train to Philly. I've got a lot of prepping to do for final! Then I'll be back in three weeks, for Christmas.
All aboard! Gtown Interview
For the third weekend in a row, here I am in Washington DC, again. I have spent more time at home with my parents than I have in Philly. Their kitties know who I am, finally! It's cute. When I walk in the door they ask to play and Blue crawls right up on my lap. Being home has been sooo nice and a great luxury, really. My parents are awesome and nice company around the house, while I study.
My interview at Georgetown was fantastic! It changed my view of the school. Yes, it is quite conservative as far as philosophy and high expectations of their students go, but on the other hand the Jesuit philosophical value of cura personalis resonates with my own appreciation of the World. Cura personalis means caring for the whole person. This means, care beyond the physical or biological factors and includes the values, cultural and spiritual values that are also important because they contribute to a person's wellness and quality of life. Caring for a person means respecting the beliefs and needs of others. Setting our personal judgements aside to effectively contribute knowledge and the ability to help. There is a state of mind taught at Georgetown that is taken very seriously and weaved through the curriculum.
Though the students who interviewed with me seemed more dignified and conservative than those I interviewed with at George Washington, in walking around Georgetown's campus it was clear that through the diversity of art students, humanities, medical and law students, that it is indeed a very colorful student body with a lot of personality. Looking around the library I saw that it is a very different place from University of Penn, where it begins to look a little bit... well, plain.
My interview was conducted by a wonderful, high-spirited, good natured, Internal Medicine doctor, named Dr Knowlan. Before singling me out of the 12 other students for the very first interview of our group, he sat down and made small-talk with everyone. He was funny and genuinely interested in us. Then he and I left the "fishbowl" to find our interview office. We got lost, so had a good time running around trying to locate the right place. Phew! We found it. He didn't want to sit behind the desk, so he pulled a chair out to sit in front of me. And then we talked about all sorts of great things.
He asked what problems I saw in healthcare and how I thought they should be addressed. He wanted to know the last book I read. Kite Runners, I told him. From that point we talked about refugees and what it meant for those who came to the United States as the first person in a family. We talked about the strength and our own admiration for the first in his own family, as well as mine. He asked why I wanted to go to Georgetown and I was able to break it down to a bunch of reasons. I explained my positive impression on the philosophy of the school and what purpose I believe it serves for medical students and their patients, as well. My other reasoning for Georgetown is the location. Proximity to my family! My mom dropped me off that morning and it was only an 8-mile drive. My Godfather was a student at Georgetown and his mother, my mother's aunt was the only physician in our family. She was a strong woman. Another of the first generation United States family members. My impressions of the rigorous load and responsibility put on Georgetown med students, helped me understand what makes their graduates so highly saught after for residency. During the fourth year of medical school, at Georgetown you act in the role of Intern and that is unique to do so early. This means, their graduates are very well prepared for the first year of residency, called internship. So, in essence their students have experienced intership already and can already do many of the tasks that are asked of interns for the first time.
There is stiff competition at Georgetown, among students. Most everyone works very hard to get the best grades possible, because they are curved and students ranked. But, as a result Georgetown gets some of the highest USMLE Parts I & II board scores. This makes more options for residencies and many of their students go to Stanford, UCSF, stay at Georgetown, or go up to Hopkins, Princetown, Yale, etc. It sounds like a good springboard for those who want to go back to California.
I am honored that Georgetown invited me for an interview and I would feel very priviledged to get an acceptance. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Near the end of my interview, my cellphone rang. A little bit embarrassed, I laughed and leaned over to silence the ring. I glanced at the ID and said outloud that it was my Dad was calling. Dr. Knowlan laughed and said, "he must be calling to ask how you did. Tell him you did GREAT!" I can't help but take that as a positive sign!
However, like every other school the majority of interviewees are NOT offered an acceptance. Though I'm excited to have interviewed there and I felt a level of compatibility, I am not setting my heart in it. I appreciate the experience and will see what happens in January! My friend Steve is a student at G-Town and we met after my interview. He brought me around campus and took me to the library cafe where we sat and had a quick cup of tea, to catch up. He has been so nice to talk to along the way, helping out with my application this summer and he even offered to go into the Admissions Office next week to put in a good word for me!
Things are so different this year than last year. It's amazing how quickly things turn around. And of course I attribute all of the change in luck to my trip to Kauai for New Year's, because in the past Hawaii has been a place to resetting, for me to get grounded, focus and turn life around. Last year I never would have imagined that I'd be living in Philly, going to Penn and interviewing for medical schools. 2005 has been very good to me! I hope 2006 has as exciting prospects to look forward to, like '05 did. I'm sure my week in California this January with my friends won't hurt! *beaming* Things are good. I am thankful and very happy. Hurray!
