The first week

Well, the first week of medical school is over. That really doesn't mean all that much. It just means that I attended classes for the first week. And so far, it seems to have gone pretty well. As talked about in the last post, we started Gross Anatomy lab, and since that post, the dissection of the cadaver has begun. While I didn't make the first incision, I did spend some time peeling away the skin of our cadaver, and for the first 10 seconds it was definitely a little weird, but then, and this may sound real insincere for your non-medical people, but it got really interesting once we started digging deeper and found the different muscles of the upper back. The smell is something. Some of us have joked how we can only hang out with each other during this semester because noone else is going to want to even be in the same room as us. I feel like that might just be the right of passage for every med student, though.

Last Thursday, we had our Committment to the Community day. About 50-100 of the med students (including myself) went to Heritage Park, which is on the border of NE/SE DC. One notable person to come from this area, is Marvin Gaye, the prolific Motown singer. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, NE and SE DC aren't really the place to be, unless you are looking for drugs. Specifically, up until about 5 years ago, Heritage Park used to be on the news all the time, and not for the "feel good stories." To help illustrate the area we were in even further, a block away from where we met, the FBI busted up a Meth Lab 2 weeks ago, and in the field behind where we worked, there was a crackhouse being torn down. So that gives you an idea, I hope. We ended up cleaning out a ton of brush, and in the brush, I saw at least 2 needles, and heard about a bunch of other people finding them as well.

The brush we were clearing out was to help clear an area that was going to be set up to be an amphitheater for the community and the high school that sits right next to the park. Overall, it was really obvious that the people in this community really cared about where they lived and wanted to turn it around. This was apparent as we watched many of the community members walk up and pick up a rake and start working. It was definitely an experience that took me out of the places I am so used to (or, still getting used to) and made me realize how lucky I am to be in my situation. The group, Washington Parks and People, has made huge strides in this area to help. Check it out.

I then began the studying. I hadn't actually studied in over a year and it felt pretty weird getting back to it. After taking a year off and being in the working world, it has definitely been a transition back to the "go to class all day and study when you are not in class" mentality. My TV time is slowly declining, and the library time is slowly increasing (funny how that works).

As for what I am studying, right now we are working on the upper and lower limbs in anatomy (first 1/3 of anatomy) as well as the early stuff in Neurobiology. And, surprisingly, the Georgetown program did do some good for me. It turns out that if I got a B or better in their Microscopic Anatomy class, I do not have to take GW's Microscopic Anatomy class. That means that I generally don't have class on Monday, Wednesday or Friday mornings. I guess that helps me ease into this whole school thing. Plus, I hated that class so I am happy.

On that note, I don't have class until 1 tomorrow (Gross) so that means I can study tomorrow morning before class (or sleep, we'll see). Either way, I'm off to bed now.

still waiting,
-wait