Awesome Quarter

This past quarter or the past 4 weeks have been awesome. We've got some interesting first years on campus and are just reminding us how much we've done over the last year. It's only their 1st week of school and they are already freaking out over their first test in a week and a half. Yep. That was us last year. It's just amazing how time flies and how much we've changed over the year.

Another thing, I got my first A in my Pathology I class. It was even better with missing only one question on the final. The class only has one test and we were all panicking over it and I was so stressed that I didn't even know what I was studying. On top of that, I even got myself into a study group with all guys. I usually study by myself too. Craziness. But grades wise, God has been watching over me. I had no motivation to study at all but somehow, God provide enough motivation for me to study and get the awesome grades that I've got.

Now I get a week off and I plan on vegetating and do fun things. I'm going shopping, clean up my apt, and maybe some cooking to freeze for the upcoming crazy quarter. I'm sooo excited, going to NYC to see Tiff Keng, see Les Mis then some more shopping and sight seeing. Fun times coming up.

Summer .... OOO ..... Summer ....

I guess I'm now into monthly updates. But anyway, summer is too nice for school despite the Missouri's misery sweltering heat. I basically didn't want to study the past 3 weeks that we were in school, but now, we are coming up to our finals week. How fast the time past. God has definitely been great to me because even though I don't have much motivation to study, He's been guiding me to study and granting me really great scores. Scores that I know that I normally would never get. But anyways, school is same ole same ole, boring.

I got more exciting news about school but not schoolwork. I don't know if I ever told y'all about being secretary for CMDA and that our class CMDA is low on regular attenders for weekly Bible Study, therefore we didn't have a worship leader for the upcoming year back in May. We've been praying for a worship leader, more men for a men's group and more people from our class will come. We've definitely been praying for the newbies (1st years). God has anwered one prayer already and the 1st years haven't officially started class yet. One of girls that we've met led before and is more than willing to do so for Bible Study. God is awesome and He provides. The men's group is looking up because we do have a couple more men from the 1st year class joining us and a few more from our class that are interested in haing a men's group. So exciting :-) I can't wait for the year to unfold.

This last couple of days I've been busy studying, working on club stuff and figuring out rotation sites and boards review stuff. I can't wait for the year to start. There so many new and amazing things waiting to happen.

Can't wait ... going to NYC over Labor Day weekend and to see Tiff Keng. Yahooo!!!! Going to see Les Miz too. Haven't seen a NYC broadway since 2002. :-)

Officially 2nd year of Med school

Whooppeee!!! one year down and only God knows how many more to go. hehe. Anyways, the classes have been very interesting. It's more clinical based than before. Last year was all those boring science basics. Now we actually get to see everything in clinical cases. That's really cool. Even neurology sounds really good.

The last two weeks I was in Southwest Missouri following a doc. The area is really pretty. There was a national park with a huge lake that runs between Missouri and part of Arkansas. The really interesting part is that it takes a 45 min drive into the clinic that I worked and then the closest grocery market is 10 mi away into Arkansas. The closest town is smaller than the one that I'm in now.

The time I was there, I was able to see a lot, esp non compliant diabetics and prenatal care. The babies and prenatal care was more fun and more interesting to see. I also got to see colonoscopy, colposcopy, and EGD. Definitely was interesting, but I won't be doing Family Practice at all. It's too much work.

Now it's time for another crazy short summer quarter for the next 4 wks.

Updates

Wow! It's been 2 months since my last update and a whole quarter of med school has flown by. So now, officially, I'm done with my first year of med school. 1 down 1 more academic year to go. Yipppee!!!

Let's see.... May has been sort of the normal school month for me. Not much is new except all those tests are just part of normal life. I did get a week off after Memorial Day weekend where I saw Pirates, celebrated end of the year and did some major shopping. Pirates was awesome. Some said it wasn't that great but nontheless, I loved it. Can't wait for Harry Potter in July.

On the last Sunday that I was at school, I finally went to a church that I liked but then the pastor is leaving. My luck right? to find a church that I sorta like but don't if I'll like it when I come back in July. Please pray for that.

For June, I sepnt about 17 days at a 4H summer camp near St. Louis as a Health Aide/Nurse. Boy was there plenty of drama within all the camp directors and the staff. Let's just say people will do anything to keep their job the way it is and to make it more beneficial to them. But for me, it was also 17 days without any internet communication for me. How sad!

I did get a day off, so I drove up to Hannibal, MO. For those who are literature fanatics, it's where Mark Twain grew up and where he based his stories on. The place is really quaint and it set aside several areas just for Twain's display. There were also few stories about the down. My fav is the Lover's Leap Bluff where the Native Amer. girl's father disapproved of her choice in her mate and decided to kill them both. But both the girl and the mate jump the bluff and onto the train underneath and rode into Iowa and opened a general store. Very cute. And yes, I did go on a riverboat on the Mississippi River on Missouri and Illinois sides. The captain pointed out the Jackson Island. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera on me, so I'll have plan a second trip and include cave exploring as well.

Now, I'm home for a week. Just to hang out and help my silly little brother move to S.F. for dental school. His apt is really small even in comparison to the ones in LA and boy are they expensive. But I love the area. I will most definitely work my hardest to settle in the bay area eventually. I just can't get away from Cali and the FOBbiness. haha

I'll be going to Newark, NJ and Detroit, MI next week to visit some hospitals that I might plan on going for 3rd and 4th years. I just need to rank them and make sure that I'll be willing to spend those 2 years in those places.

I'm also planning a trip to East Lansing, MI at MSU for a conference in July. So that'll be interesting. Maybe a trip in Aug to LA too.

New goals: Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, medical mission trip

Lazy week

For the past week, I've been lazy by the med school standard. I haven't done much studying but did more fun things in planning. We've just had a skit nite and it's a tradition in med schools. It was hilarious. The whole nite was making fun of the things that happened during the school year, the professors and the students. Also they made pseudo commercials that mock the real TV ones, like Guardicil one less, Yaz and the Herpes one. I helped planned the refreshment stand as it was sponsored by the Bible Study as part of a fundraiser. It was a lot of fun trying to coordinate everything and everyone and planning food for about 400 people.

This week we found out that we need to have a social next week for the 3rd years that are coming back from their rotations to do their end of the year testing. So we are now in the midst of scrambling and combining this event with another end of the year event because something else came up. AHHH!!! But it'll be fun. :P

After all this, I'll get to go to St. Louis for a day for a conference and hang out at a friend's place the nite before. Hopefully, we'll do something fun that nite.

I've been going to church but haven't really had time to really get to know the people there. Most of the people really just go then leave after. We'll see. But I did pick up a book called Lady in Waiting by Jackie Kendall & Debby Jones. It sounded like a single gal book but it really talks about a gal's heart in preparations for God because Christ is our groom. Gals should have this in the heart before considering dating. It's just something fun for me to read so I don't go crazy.

I've just got the job for a 4H camp just outside of St. Louis for the 1st 2 wks of June then I'll be home for maybe 2 wks. Maybe I'll check out the rotation sites for my 3rd & 4th years for the 1st wk of July. But we'll see. It's still up in the air.

Anyways, it's getting late here and it's time for bed. So good nite peeps.

Dress up and down and up and down .....

This week flew by and it was a blur most of the time. Besides the normal tests that we have during the busiest week, they gave us more patient encounters where have to dress up professionally. So this week, I felt like I was continuously dressing up and down and up and down, a unending cycle. ::sigh:: Imagined that will be my life in a few more years but between office clothes and scrubs. Ho fun for me!

The weather here is freezing again. And here I thought that it's spring and that I coule perhaps run outdoor instead of motivating myself to go to the horrible gym that we have. Oh well! maybe in a week the weather will be great again.

I watch Jericho online on CBS.com. It's really good, talking about the end of the days by nuclear bombs and how the US has divided on itself. It just got me started thinking how wonderful it is that I have the eternal faith in Christ and eternal life with Him. The townspeople in the show had no hope whatsoever and they only have the hope of fake US military saving them and carry them through the winter without heater. The people also felt that they have to do everything themselves and end up turning against each other. It just scared me that that's who we were before Christ and that we turned against each other really fast because we didn't have that eternal faith. I'm just glad that I have Christ on my side and that victory comes with it. :-P

Story of True Christianity

There was this well known painter and he taught his son how to paint. But the war came and his son served the country. One day, the father got the fatal letter saying that his son died in battle. The father grieved and weeped.

After a while, someone knocked on his door and he opened it and saw a young man in his military uniform. The young man said, "I was in the same unit with your son and he taught me how to paint because painting was something that I wanted to learn and do."

Then the young man pulled out a not so well painted picture of the son and father and said, "I painted this one and I want you to have it."

The father cried, took the painting and said, "You are my son." He then put the painting on his mantle where he used to hang his own work.

After a couple of years, he died and his possessions and works were to be auctioned off. People from all over the place came in hopes to purchase his wonderful works for a low price. So the auction started and the first piece to be auctioned off is the painting by the young man. The auction started at $1000. People scoffed at the auctioneer and told him to get rid of the painting and start with the real work. Then the auctioneer said, "Anyone for $800?" Again, people scoffed.

Auctioneer said, "Again anyone for $600?" People scoffed.

Auctioneer said, "Will anyone give anything for this painting?" While the people scoffed again, in the audience was the young man and he said, "I will give everything I have for that painting back."

Then the auctioneer pulled out the painter/father's will and said, "He who buys this painting will inherit all his work."

This story was told by our speaker today in our CMDA quarterly lunch meeting. CMDA has these free lunch meetings as part of evangelism. The speaker, Manson, spoke on true v. false Christianity and use this story to illustrate his point. True Christianity is when we are willing to give up everything in the world, essentially giving the whole world a "LOST" stamp, to just spend moments with Christ, which the young man did. The rewards of this is so tremendous that we can't even comprehend.He also said that it is about what God did not what we did because it should be that we are nothing and lost without God. This just really hit me and really cleared it up for me. True Christian is not just doing all the act but our hearts have to be in the right place. It just really sadden me to see people there today who just came for lunch and got turned off by the talk. They outrightly rejected God, but CMDA will be in prayer for those who left today. There were also a few Mormons there and I'm sure that they have conflicting issues. A side note, I'm definitely understaning more about Mormons since our class has so many of them.

Just my thoughts from today's meeting.

Colorado Springs!!!

Spring Break ended and I was back at school for two days before leaving again for Colorado Springs for a conference with all the docs. The conference was awesome in that I learned a ton. The docs there were so willing to teach. The minute that they found out I'm a student, they just flock around the studnets like they couldn't wait to impart their experiences and knowledge to us. Their view is that knowledge is the only thing that they can give away freely and still keep it for themselves. Throughout the enitre conference, I feel like God has definitely lead me into making the right choice in coming to ATSU-KCOM because our school has taught us so much for only being here 2 quarters. There are schools out there that are not learning half of what we know already. There were 1st year students from our school that are teaching the 3rd years some of the techniques that we were taught 1st quarter. It was amazing to put everything together and realized all the craziness in school is worth something and so is being away from home. A lot of the school call our school, ATSU-KCOM, the osteopathic manipulation mecca, and now I really see why. We were taught with all sort of techniques and that we get a lot more practice. We jumped right into it the first day school started. I'm really thankful that God has brought me here.

We have fun times too. I went to see the Garden of the Gods. It's a bit like Grand Canyon but mostly huge rocks along an 8 mile trail. It was gorgeous. I definitely got hooked on Taboo and Cranium Pop 5. These two games are really good to get to know other people because it really gets into their minds and see how they think.

I also met quite a few people and got know a few more people better. I met a few 3rd years from school. I met one of them in a funny way. Remi came up to me when me and a couple of other people were getting ready to leave to have a drink in a bar/restaurant before our evening event. He kinda made me feel bad about leaving just when he wanted to meet us, so I stayed and we talked for a bit. He's Hong Kongnese and from NY and we talked a little bit, get to know each type of info. Then the next day, I skipped the afternoon lectures cuz I wanted to talk to people from other schools and just hang out. I talked to people from Virginia and Touro, CA. After that I ran into Remi again, and he was like let's talk more and hang out before our school's alumni reception. So we walked around the resort's golf course (The Broadmoor). The funny thing is, and God has a great sense of humor, he is a Christian too and he's went through the same thing that I am, not finding a good church after a strong church in undergrad. He went to a solid church back in NY and had a hard time finding a good one in town. I'm having a hard time transitioning from GCC to something local. I haven't been to church since Jan and I know that has been completely my fault, but I have been going to Bible Study. I had Mon test every week and needed every minute to study and feeling like I couldn't afford 2 hrs to go to church. Then Remi just grilled me on John MacArthur and expository teaching because that's the topic he's studying right now in his life. So it was great just exchanging what we know and trading what we learned. God has just put this amazing guy in front of me out of nowhere, telling me that He still cares and that He wants me to get back into a fellowship. This was just a great gentle reminder that I need other Christians to keep me accountable in my walk with Him. So hopefully, I'll be able to keep in touch with Remi and share/trade more life tips.

So all in all, I think I'll definitely go again next year because not only do I learn more techniques from the practicing docs, I also met quite a few people. Only thing is now I have to catch up on the classes I missed so this weekend, I'll be a busy bee. It was also great to see that the practicing docs did not lose their sense of humor and boy can they dance. They still had time to fun things despite being crazy busy.

Interesting day for Birthday!!!

I am officially 23 and getting older and more adult even though I still feel like underage cuz I'm still in school. Anyway, Facebook had a busy day on my birthday especially with people that I haven't talked to in ages commented.

Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes! I had the most wonderful Asian made French birthday cake. I also had a ton of Chinese food. Yummy.

I figure this would be the easiest way to say thanks!

Update ... as promised!

The month of February had been horrible with tests been thrown at me with lightening speed but I'm very glad that I have God at my side to ground me and give me strength to get through it. I've also gone through more dark chocolate and racquetball than I want or planned to ::sigh:: Stress definitely got to me.

No more school talk, especially on the week that I'm home. =P

This past couple of weeks have been filled with happy and sad news. Starting with the sad news. Someone I know very well decided to drop out because he felt that God had given him a calling to do something else. I admire him for having the guts to withdraw and face the music, especially with his parents. I know it must not have been easy decision. Props to him. Sometimes I really wonder what God has planned for me. I just wished I could've known ahead of times but that's the beauty of God. He gives us amazing calling and comes in different forms.

The good news is that I'm involved in CMDA, Bible study, as secretary on the exec board and I'm excited in planning with the others for the next year and the incoming young'uns. Also I'll be going to Colorado Spings in about a week for a conference. It's all very exciting. Can't wait.

One more big thing I have to give thanks for. My dad made it through a successful surgery last Thurs and now is on a good road to recovery. I was nervous about his surgery especially knowing what I know now. Also I had a really hard time studying for my last final the day of his surgery. Thank God that He kept my dad safe and me sane. My mom and brother were not as nervous since they didn't know exactly all the anatomy but they were worried because it was such a long procedure. How funny. God loves giving us funny moments. By the time I got back home, my dad had already been in the hospital for about 2 days but he just really wanted to go home. He came home 2 days ago but he needs lots of TLC. Basically, he sort of immobile, so me and my family has to help him with everything to keep his back stable. Doc said it'll be about a 3 months recovery perhaps more. Something interesting was that my dad's doc is a big shot and also a pastor at his church. What a surprise that was to me!

I want to share a song that has helped me the last couple of weeks. It's a reassurance that God is always there and will never abandon me. It's called "Even If I Fall".

I may pass through the waters
But one thing I know, You are with me
I may walk through the fire,
But one thing I know, You are with me
Though my way seems uncertain,
In You I'll put my trust.

Chorus
(Men )
When You're with me, I will rise up
When You lift me up (repeat)
(Ladies)
Even if I fall, I'll rise again for You are my God
Even if I fall, You lift me up (repeat)

I may go through some trials
But I will not fear, for You are with me
I will go to the mountain,
And I will press on, for You are with me
Though my way seems uncertain
In You I'll put my trust.

God has definitely provided and well. He even gave me the opportunity to talk to a few girls in school that feel the way I do, like we are loners among our class because of our beliefs and the fact that very few people are at the same stage in life. I'm glad God gave me a couple of girls that I can talk to for certain things even though it won't be like the gals I know and love in college.

Thank the Lord for everything. Always in abundance.