So classes are in full swing now. We had our white coat ceremony on Thursday. It was very short compared to last semester's, which I was very glad of. On Saturday morning, my friends and I drove to the French side to go shopping in a place called Marigot. To our surprise, it was only a ten minute drive! The French side seems a little more… civilized. There are actual speed limit signs! And real shopping! So we spent a good few hours walking around the town, looking through racks of expensive Parisian-made clothing, and eating baked goods at a well-known French bakery.
In other news… we (the fifth termers) wrote our diagnostic NBME on Friday morning. The diagnostic was a practice exam for the real one coming up in April. It was pretty much a reality check. Time to get my butt into shape (academically)!
This is it! The final semester of basic science, and the last four months on the island (or any island) for me!! I arrived two nights ago after a few delays but nothing worse, thankfully. The rough weather apparently caused many flight cancellations at major airports in the states and Canada. On my first day back at school I noticed that it was very very empty. Well it was kind of expected given the unideal situation from last semester. I was kind of sad to hear that some people had transferred to other schools, just because I had grown familiar with their presence in the classroom since first semester. My two classes this semester are ICM (Introduction to Clinical Medicine) and FCM (Fundamentals of Clinical Medicine), but technically only one real course (ICM), as the other one consists of the Kaplan Review in preparation for the NBME that I have to write (and pass) at the end of the semester. Yesterday at noon, the school's new CEO held a town hall meeting to go over the school's status and changes being implemented. The only change I did not like was that we were ordered to wear scrubs during class. Did I mention that I made a few New Year's resolutions this year? (I don't usually). I plan on working out at the gym at least 5 times a week, and meal-prepping! The gym I go to is right on the main road and about a five minute walk from where I live. It is on the ground floor of a large hotel beside the marina. The gym itself is actually quite small. There are three areas: the weight room, the cardio room and the room with the glass mirrors (cool-down room?). Anyways I was there yesterday for about an hour. After I got home I started meal-prepping. I wanted to do meal-prepping just to force myself to cook instead of buying food everyday. So I bought a huge bag of frozen chicken tenderloins, a bag of broccoli florets, and a box of mashed potato flakes and some fresh sweet potato as well as some quinoa. Also I bought a 24-piece set of plastic containers to place all the food in. It wasn't until I started cooking that I realized how long meal-prepping takes. But it did feel satisfying afterwards to see all the food packed neatly in the containers on top of one another. It will also help me control my portions (which I have a big problem with!)
At the gym~
Today I went to the gym again and bumped into my two friends from Toronto who were also working out there. Later we went out for food (since their stove exploded!!), and ended up at a restaurant on the main road called Harbor Queen. My two friends both got the all-you-can-eat ribs option, and I ordered… lobster!! (as usual)
So classes are in full swing now. We had our white coat ceremony on Thursday. It was very short compared to last semester's, which I was very glad of. On Saturday morning, my friends and I drove to the French side to go shopping in a place called Marigot. To our surprise, it was only a ten minute drive! The French side seems a little more… civilized. There are actual speed limit signs! And real shopping! So we spent a good few hours walking around the town, looking through racks of expensive Parisian-made clothing, and eating baked goods at a well-known French bakery.
In other news… we (the fifth termers) wrote our diagnostic NBME on Friday morning. The diagnostic was a practice exam for the real one coming up in April. It was pretty much a reality check. Time to get my butt into shape (academically)!
This is it! The final semester of basic science, and the last four months on the island (or any island) for me!! I arrived two nights ago after a few delays but nothing worse, thankfully. The rough weather apparently caused many flight cancellations at major airports in the states and Canada. On my first day back at school I noticed that it was very very empty. Well it was kind of expected given the unideal situation from last semester. I was kind of sad to hear that some people had transferred to other schools, just because I had grown familiar with their presence in the classroom since first semester. My two classes this semester are ICM (Introduction to Clinical Medicine) and FCM (Fundamentals of Clinical Medicine), but technically only one real course (ICM), as the other one consists of the Kaplan Review in preparation for the NBME that I have to write (and pass) at the end of the semester. Yesterday at noon, the school's new CEO held a town hall meeting to go over the school's status and changes being implemented. The only change I did not like was that we were ordered to wear scrubs during class. Did I mention that I made a few New Year's resolutions this year? (I don't usually). I plan on working out at the gym at least 5 times a week, and meal-prepping! The gym I go to is right on the main road and about a five minute walk from where I live. It is on the ground floor of a large hotel beside the marina. The gym itself is actually quite small. There are three areas: the weight room, the cardio room and the room with the glass mirrors (cool-down room?). Anyways I was there yesterday for about an hour. After I got home I started meal-prepping. I wanted to do meal-prepping just to force myself to cook instead of buying food everyday. So I bought a huge bag of frozen chicken tenderloins, a bag of broccoli florets, and a box of mashed potato flakes and some fresh sweet potato as well as some quinoa. Also I bought a 24-piece set of plastic containers to place all the food in. It wasn't until I started cooking that I realized how long meal-prepping takes. But it did feel satisfying afterwards to see all the food packed neatly in the containers on top of one another. It will also help me control my portions (which I have a big problem with!)
At the gym~
Today I went to the gym again and bumped into my two friends from Toronto who were also working out there. Later we went out for food (since their stove exploded!!), and ended up at a restaurant on the main road called Harbor Queen. My two friends both got the all-you-can-eat ribs option, and I ordered… lobster!! (as usual)
