Med School Graduation

Finally after 4 crazy years, I'm Dr. Carina Cheung. Until this day, I still don't really respond when people called my Dr. Cheung. It takes me a bit to go Oh! That's me. It was great to see my Aunt and Uncle whom I haven't seen for years. I got to see my silly cousin and his wife too. It's always great to get to see family.

Everything before graduation went smoothlyg. The financial aid session was mindboggling in that I have too much debt and there are too much info to process to find the best way to pay off the debt. AHHH!! Had a good time catching up with everyone in class. It's been almost 2 years since we've seen each other and it was good times. There are so many new babies. I'm guessing our class now have about 50+ kids. It was great seeing the girls from CMDA and see how our lives are. We had a class party and a white coat bonfire. Too funny.

The only glitch was the my family's flights were delayed and missed their connection but thank the Lord! He made it happen so they can get on the later flight and arrive a couple hours of later than planned.

None of the I'm a doctor mindset hit me until we recite our Hippocratic oath. That's when I realize that I'm really going to be responsible for people's lives now come July 1st. I'm still trying to process that thought. Who knows when I will fully wrap my head around that thought? The one thing that I have no trouble with is that God has made all this happen. Without Him, I would not be where I am today. Now just waiting for my next adventure... Cleveland Clinic ...

Packing and Mum & Dad ::sigh::

How I hate packing all my things into bags and boxes. It's so annoying and tiring. Ugh!! Now I just wish my mum is here to sort out all my things and my dad is here putting things into bags and boxes nicely. It was impressive what they did for me when I first needed to pack for med school. Parents are just amazing. Thank God for my parents.

I'm moving my things tomorrow and driving Thurs. I will be very sporadic with internet, but I will check in once I get internet.

Beautiful Storm

Last nite was really hard to fall asleep, but it was really beautiful. The thunder rolled like crazy. Everytime the thunder clapped, there was a car alarm going off. The lightning was amazing. It was so so bright that lit up my room through my windows. The rain was pattering like crazy. Just my type of weather. It was amazing to see this kind of storm. I'm very glad that God has put me in Missouri where I can enjoy this type of weather where the sunny California doesn't get even in the winter.

Unfortunately, I'm discovering a really weird allergy, perhaps mold. It's making me cough like crazy. It's not an itch but more a slight pressure pushing down on me but coughing relieves the weird pressure. One thing I'm definitely glad to leave behind in a little over a month is the darn allergy. They drive me crazy.

Tornado Watch on Thurs then Snow/Rain on Sat ....

In the span of my life, I've never thought that I would get to see a tornado or hurricane watch/warning. Thunderstorm and snowstorm weren't such big of deal since it can't do as much damage and not as scary as tornado or hurricane. But the tornado watch was definitely made the Thursday much more interesting. It was a mix between warm air, rain and crazy crazy wind. The wind was just blowing everywhere. It was never in one direction.

Then Sat, close to mid April, we've got a mix of snow and rain all day with the temp in mid 30s. This is not April weather. It should be warm and springy not cold and wet, can't wait til the real spring comes along. This late winter thing is starting to get slightly annoying.

Wish me luck on apartment hunting/calling in Jersey. Hopefully, I'll something reasonable.

Dreary Spring Rain

I'm back in the state of Misery (Missouri). And let me tell you, it's definitely dreary and dark. It may be spring by the calendar but definitely not by the temperature. It's in the 30s and raining/ snowing/ slushing like no other. What a time to need to be start studying hard core for Boards. Ugh. This week is the week which Boards studying is going at full speed. So much to do and so little time.

On top of that, I need to start calling up Jersey apartments. Hopefully, I'll find something that is reasonable.

On a side note, any ideas for a decently priced summer vacation for a week in August would be welcomed.

A day in Columbia, MO ....

I've just spent a day in Columbia, MO. It's an hour and a half away and it's the closest city with university area. I spent the day doing lots of shopping, shopped for clothes, Bath and Body Works and food. I have come to really love ethnic food. Now I'm onto Indian food. I went to a Indian grocer and bought some mixes and instant packets and some naan to go with the food that I've bought. I also went to the Oriental grocer and it's owned by Koreans, so lots of korean foods. But I did get some Chinese snacks out of there.

It was fun. Hopefully I'll keeping going with my ethnic food chase. :-)

Something True for Missouri ...

Our class made a video about Kirksville, MO (misery). It's very true. I've seen it happened before too. :-)

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

A First

Today, our afternoon classes were cancelled because we've got a winter storm alert. Our school boast of only closing 2-3 school days ever. So what a privilege that today was another one. When they told us, we were surprise because the weather did not seem to bad at the time but now when I look out the window, it's all ice. This weekend is forecasted to be snowing and freezing rain. What a full blown winter.

This is good and bad. It's the 3day weekend and I was planning on going to the nearby city to take a breather, now, I can't go. boohoo. But then, now, I have more time to completely catch on the pile of lecture notes. yippee.

Oh boy, this will be a fun weekend.

Amazing....

On my way to the gym to play a raquetball game, I saw a fawn (young deer) on the side of the parking lot as I walk across the lot. I was at first startled but the more I looked at it, the more I thought how beautiful it is and how amazing God is, giving us the wonder of nature. :)

Just a quick thought. Time for me to go for a practical exam.

PS. I'm excited. We are supposed to be getting rain, ice then snow by the end of this weekend. Once more the white winter. hehe.

New things for me!!!

This week has been full of new things for me to experience. The week started off relatively normal with really warm weather in the 60s. Then Wed nite was my first ice storm. According to the local, it's a small one. So on Thurs morn, walking to class was ok, nothing big deal but on my way back from class, I was buttoning my jacket and wasn't really paying attention to where I was walking. I slipped on a patched of ice and fell on my bottom and scraped my plam a little bit. Haven't had a fall like that since my 2nd year in college where I tripped over my foot and sidewalk and gave myself a swoollen knee. It'll be a fun winter in counting how many times I fall and be a major klutz. haha

Then the same nite, I had to go to my friend's place to go over some homework problems. I didn't realize how hard and how long it would take to defrost my car. I have an ice scraper in the trunk of my car. When I got to my car, all my doors were frozen shut and so was my trunk. I was like, "I have to get into my trunk! AHH!" Then I just started pulling on any door just to get into my car. Finally got one of the backseat door open, then I crawled around to the driver seat to start my car and start the thawing. Thankfully I remembered that my backseat bench folds down and I can get into my trunk. Yippee! Then I start scraping. It took about a good 30 min scraping and warming up my car. But I still couldn't get my trunk open. The whole time, I was just praying to God to just let me open one door. Crazy.

On my way home, I decided to get gas. Well guess what? The gas door is also frozen shut and I couldn't get it open. So that nite was just loads of fun. It was raining too my the time I got home. It's basically ice pellets raining down. It hurts.

That same nite was the snow storm. My first one. I went to bed excited. I woke up Friday morn with snow and it was just amazing. Everything was white and beautiful and pure. I was so excited that I took more pics out of my window than I planned on.

That same nite, we have our annual Prom. everyone get to dress up. I went to a 2nd year's apt downstairs and had wine and cheese. The cheese was good but I found out I only like dessert wine, the sweeter the better. We walked to the place for the formal. Normally it would be a short walk but with the 4inches of snow the nite before it was interesting. I had on a mid calf dress and strappy sandal, so the walk was freezing. Frozen toes and legs. No amt of jacket and scarf could make up for it. The price we pay for beauty. ::sigh::

The prom was fun. The food was cold and didn't taste the best. The songs for dancing sucks with occasional good songs. Most people were drunk by 10pm. There was a group going out afterward in dress clothes to bars. Crazy people. Overall it was fun just to see people getting all dressed and not seeing them in scrubs like in everyday.

Overall, this week has been good. God has been gracious to me, letting me to see and experience new things. Tomorrow morning will be interesting trying to get to church. hehe. Laters.

Thanksgiving Break!!

It's been a week since my short week break. The break from school was wonderful but too short for my liking. I had a busy but mindless week. It was mostly dring my brother to and back from UOP until he got out on Tues. Then busy trying to find my parents a decent priced brand new car to buy. That took about three days to do. In between all the gatherings, squeezed in some TV catch up time. Sleep did not get caught up but got the daily 8hrs a nite. Not enough.

This is the first time that I realize that going home and back to school is an all day ordeal. It takes 3hrs from the airport to my apt and then another 3-4 hrs of flight and the time change. craziness. On my way back to school, I had to take a freeway that only had about 2sec for me to enter from the airport exit and of course, I missed that. Then I took a freeway that is a longer route. Another girl in my car had to call someone and asked for directions to get back on the shorter route. What a detour! But I did get to see the Kansas City Stadium. Hehe. I'm so not going to drive for Christmas. It'll be too much for me. Ugh!

Anyway, going home made me realize how much I do miss a strong church even though my home church is not as strong as GCC but it's much better than the one I go to out here. I really miss the fellowship. People actually talked and hangout and are not busy rushing around doing things. Here at school, I never really get a chance to stay and hang around cuz I'm always trying to get back and get studying going so I can get as much studying in as I can possibly squeezed in 24hrs.

But God still bless me with my family and friends I've made at UCLA. Being able to catch up with them and their flexibilty with my lack of time to talk during the quarter have been a wonderful gift for me during the quarter. Thank and praise God for carrying me through this past quarter. He has answered my prayer at the end where I was on the borderline of failing 2 classes but He is gracious and gave me something beyond what I was expecting. I'm enjoying the challenge and the gift that God has bestowed on me and just pray that I'll learn even more from Him the upcoming months and years.

In short version, this was my week at home!! more to come about my first week at school with our Prom tonite.

A Whirlwind of Weeks ....

Hi Hi
It's been a looonnng time but the past three weeks have been wonderful yet stressful. The one fun thing was seeing Dr. Patch Adam (the real one and not the movie) giving his schpeal. It was great and funny until his opening for Q&A, then it went downhill to disappointment. He was all for compassion and giving and just trying to brighten up kids' day by being clowns. He also showed a couple of video clips but they were quite disturbing. At least that's what I thought of them. The Q&A was a disaster because he did not answer the questions being asked and his answers were the same one for everything questions, just worded differently. It was here that I saw his hipocricy on his philosophy. He's all about compassion and kindness but he's absolutely violent about government. Also he talked about religions and how he "pretends" to believe the religion of the kids that he clowning and that's done because he's just turn it to himself. So man centered. That was just a sad and disappointing nite for me.

Then the weeks of the last batch of test and finals hit. Boy! was that crazy. The last batch of tests were ok and relatively normal. But the finals, talk about stress and craziness and about not sleeping. I don't think I've slept more than 4 hrs a nite and caffeine kept me going for the last three days of tests. It was a week of keep going and nervousness and praying that I'll pass the tests and the classes. By the end of the week, my apartment looked like I had a tornado tore through it multiple times and plates stacked up the highest it has ever been. I was on salad and pizzas and sandwiches all b/c they take the least amount of time to make and eat. By the end of the week, it was huge breath letting go and physically drained. Nothing was ever like that before. Then I wanted to take a nap before cleaning my apartment but I couldn't fall asleep for the longest time. It was weird!

Side note: A funny story happened during that week. I drove to the state school to use their library to study. Their library atmosphere was very much like the Anderson library at UCLA so I fell in love with it. I was there until 9pm and forgot that it's been at freezing temps after dark. So I got to my car and saw that it was covered in ice. So me, being a Cali girl, I just started my car and sat inside for good 10 mins to thaw out my car even though I only live like 5 mins away. ::sigh:: I didn't have an ice scrapper to scrap off the ice so I can drive. silly me. Then the walk from my car in the lot to my apartment has completely freeze me so I had to take a really hot shower to thaw. How sad!!!!

And now I'm HOME!!!!! The trip home was long. It was an all day event with driving 3hrs to airport and flying for 4 hrs with 2hrs of layover at Dallas. I was a complete zombie by the time I got home. I went out to dinner last nite and the food was awesome! That's what I was missing, the good Chinese food from Cali. (Today I had some rice and veggies for lunch and I told my bro that rice was good too :) since I don't have good Chinese rice at school) I had persimmons today and boy were they great. hehe. I just realize that right now, any Chinese food or fruit would great since I've been Chinese deprived for the last 3-4months.

These past couple of weeks have definitely been draining physically and spiritually as well. It was a lot of trusting the Lord and having the strong faith that He knows what He's doing with me in med school and crazy tests that I was taking. Half of the time, I felt like I don't even have the physical strength to get up every morning at 4:30 and go to bed around midnite and spend all the rest of the day studying. He definitely showed me how faithful He's been and how His promises are just that, His. It's been wonderful to see how my finals week have been done throught God's grace especially in some of the classes that I've been struggling.

I'm excited too because I have started an accountability group through the Bible study there and I'm sort of a leader of the group. The girls I've got are great and I'm excited to see how this would work in my life this year at school. I don't know what I'm going to do with them especially since we only meet one hour once a week because of our crazy schedule. But it's exciting nonetheless.

Anyways, I think this is the Cliff note version of my lovely crazy weeks. Laters.

Restful yet a slightly anxious ....

I'm enjoying this week so far: enough time for me to catch up on classes, get about 6 hrs of sleep a nite (a luxury) and getting a bit of time to myself. I'm enjoying this week but on my back burner is the fact that in two weeks, I have a crazy week of finals. But I'm gonna trust that God will carry me through and giving the strength for the cray non sleeping week. I dunno what to do with my schedule to get all the studying I need. I'm JUST slightly overwhelmed. :P We'll see how I'll survive that week.

Other than that, this has been a normal week. Haven't really done many fun things, except ones going out to the local bar with a bunch of people during the homecoming weekend of the local state uni. It was great in relieving stress and not doing much thinking.

God was really gracious because He just gave me something wonderful to work with (I think). CMDA (Bible study) has accountability group (our version of small group) and I said I could be a contact person for my group. So now I have a group of girls with another first year, a second year and another girl that's been held back. I just found out that I am sort of leading the group as well in choosing topics and what to do. So we'll see how that goes. But I'm excited to see what God has planned for this type of group.

The big thing this week was the MLB Cardinal, St. Louis, winning the world series yesterday. The last two games they played were awesome. It was intense. Funny how I learned to watch all the sports that I don't normally watched in the last two years. First it was NBA bastketball from my brother then college football and basketball from Miss Sandy and not MLB from med school. How funny that I've never used watch sports and not I understand and watch various sports. haha. unbelievable.

Anyways, time for me to look at more pictures to go with my Histology class (microscope class). ::sigh::