Week in Weston, Florida

Back from a week in Florida during a hurricane season with a girlfriend. The week was muggy, warm / hot and wet. It literally rain for a couple of hours 3 days out of the 7 days we were there. The place we stayed, Mizner Place in Vacation Village. The place was gorgeous. We mostly sat around the pool and got sun and read random fiction. very chilled. We gone a yummy Italian restaurant not once but twice. The first time we got their appetizer caprese and it was yummy. The second time we got dessert instead, Italian canoli and Tiramisu. oh boy were they yummy beyond description.

We also went to one of the sports cafe and the bad for you fried seafood. Tried conch fritters which I'm sure I've had before but it was in Chinese soup that my mom made. We also tried one of the one of the more upscale restaurant for their yummy fresh fish. I had the seared halibut. It was done to perfection. We went to one very popular Asian buffet. It was only $11 and they've got sushi and hot foods and green tea ice cream. We have definitely had our share of unbelievable yummy food.

We spent half a day in the famous Everglades. We took the tour of the Everglades via an airboat, like the ones on CSI Miami. Saw bunch of crazy native birds ie vultures. Saw 2 alligators in the swamp. Then we got the alligator show and took pictures of me holding a baby alligator (Liana).


The Airboat Ride in the Everglades


The Gator in the Swamp; Vultures waiting for meat


The Gator Show


Me and Baby Liana; Lovely sign :)


Last nite out

More pics of the resort to come.

First week in New Jersey

The drive to Jersey from Missouri took forever. With all the breaks, it took me 15 hrs or so to get to Harrisburg then another 2.5 hrs to my apartment. It just felt like forever. I don't think I would ever want to do it again. It was cramp driving and not much leg room. Ugh.

Then we sort of unpack a bit then me and my parents took a tour of East Coast for 5 days. It is my second time but their first. It was still fun but my favorite this time is Niagara Falls and the Bostonian atmosphere. Perhaps I might spend some time in my fourth year there. Who knows.


The Brooklyn Bridge

Fake or Real? Wax Museum, NYC


Capitol Hill, White House, Washington D.C.


Hershey's Chocolate World


Niagara Falls


Bostonian Lobster (yummy)


Boston Harbor Boat Ride

Will be going to Florida to enjoy the sun next week. Be a fun boring bum.

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.

Boards are officially DONE!!!! (for now)

Scores are in ..... And I passed. YIPPEEEE!!!! Scores are not exactly what I was hoping for, but under the time constraints and the set of questions I got, I'm happy with the scores.

COMLEX 574/87
USMLE 205/84

Once rotations start, I'll start prepping for Step 2 for next summer. Ugh. More tests.

I'm officially a 3rd year.

I'm looking forward for my 2 weeks of traveling come August. 1 week with my parents traveling the East Coast and 1 week with friends in a Florida resort being a bum and enjoying the sun.

Crazy Week ....

This started with me agreeing to come back home to volunteer as the Arts & Crafts translator for Sacramento's Chinese Culture Camp. I was scheduled to fly back on Tues and land at 11am and immediately get myself to the camp and start my work. My flight leaves from Kansas City at 7:30am and it's a 3 hr drive from Kirksville. So I left my apt at 2:30am and got to the airport around 6:30am with a 1/2 hr nap and 15 min detour on the airport exit. At the same time, I got a cold which started 2 days before. My nose was so stuffed that I couldn't sleep before my drive. All in all, I was up for 36hrs when I got back from the first day of "work".

Work was fun. Translating what the teacher from Taiwan was teaching and at the same time teaching the kids the Chinese Arts & Crafts. After the day is done, my mom and a couple of her friends were in charge taking the 3 Taiwan teachers out to dinner and sometimes after dinner program. This was from Tues to Fri.

For the after dinner programs, we have gone to Tapioca Express for Shaved Ice. We walked around Old Sac and the Delta Boat and the walkway along the Sacramento River. After that we went to Leatherby's Creamery for their gigantic banana split and sundae. The next night we took a walk along another small river in a residential neighborhood. The highlight of all those were the conversations. The conversations were non stop and full of laughter.

Then on Sat, my family and I drove to SF for my brother's white coat ceremony at his dental school. They don't have a different white coat for students. Their coats are the same length as the fully licensed docs, unlike mine. Then we spent the weekend hanging out with my brother at his apartment and had some yummy food. We spent some time playing card games and did some grocery shopping in Chinatown. We at Thai food, Taiwanese food and Korean food. All in all, it was great to be able to hang out together as a family. It's been a while since we were able to do that.

Taiwan Scallion Pancakes

These are one of my all time favorites lunch/snacks in undergrad at UCLA. Then I didn't have access to Asian market in MO to buy the frozen ones, so I learned to make it.

Ingredients :
2 cups of flour
1 tsp of salt
1 tbsp of oil
3/4 cup of boiling water (more or less)
4 tbsp of vegetable oil or sesame oil
1 cup of finely sliced scallion

1. Mix the flour and salt together and then add the 1 tbsp of oil and the boiling water to the flour. Mix thoroughly to form a dough then knead for 5 minutes.
2. Form it into ball, cover and let rest in the mixing bowl for 20 minutes.
3. Form into a log and cut into 4-6 pieces then roll each piece into a round disk.



4. Brush with oil or sesame oil and sprinkle with scallions. Roll into a cylinder and then coil it into a snail shape. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.

5. Flatten the dough with your hand and then roll it out again.
6. Heat up non-stick frying pan over medium heat and brush it with some oil. Pan fried both side until golden brown.
7. Cut into wedges and serve with any dipping sauce of your choice.

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.

Few things been going through my head ....

As the clinical rotations coming up, few specialties have been running through my head, wondering what would fit me and what I want better. Hopefully I'll eventually find something that will fit. I have come down to a few: OB/Gyn, Anesthesiology, Allergy/Immunology, Heme/Onc. We'll see in the next few months.

This is one of the few things that I have found while I was searching online regarding specialties and personality. This one is very interesting.

This one is just for fun for being the perfect resident. Hopefully, it'll be amusing to you as well.

Hopefully, God will open the right doors and lead me in path that will do His work.

Updated Schedule for Boards

This is the updated version of my study plan for the 3.5 weeks. It was pure torture.

The daily schedule starts at 8am before I went home and 7am after I flew home. Study until lunch around noonish then lunch break till 1pm ish. Then study again till 5-6 ish pm. Workout, shower and dinner until 8-8:30pm. Start the final round of studying till 11-11:30pm. Before I went home, Fri, Sat and Sun ended by 10pm. After I went home, Fri and Sat ended at 10pm and Sun took a break after 8pm spending with family. I definitely felt burned out by the test time and definitely did not want to look at any books or questions anymore.

The books and qBanks used:
First Aid
BRS Phys
HY Immuno, Neuroanatomy
Kaplan Pharm, Anatomy, Phys, Biochem
COMLEX Review (BRS) for clinical anatomy and OMT
Rapid Review Path (Goljan)
Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple
Goljan PDF Review files
Goljan Path Audio
Kaplan Audio
USMLE World and assessment
Kaplan COMLEX qBank

A couple of us went through the Kaplan audio lectures and books and listen to Goljan path starting from Feb to end of April. This was a pre review of the basic sciences from 1st year. We did this once a week on Sat for about 5-6hrs. But we also did other subjects on our own time over spring break and during the week. On average it was 2 hrs every spent on boards, other than Spring break. Our school provided all the Kaplan materials and had Dr. Raymon, who lecture the Pharm for Kaplan, for a weekend. That weekend was totally worth it.

Here's the practice scores over the 3.5 weeks:
Kaplan Pre-test 35%
CBSSA (March) 51 - correlate to 150
Kaplan Final (end of April) 53%
USMLE World assessment - 54%
CBT from NBME web - 69%
USMLE World - 55% completed, started with 35%, ended with 55-64%

Based on practices, I was scoring around 210-225 for USMLE. My goal is to get the national average of 220. But I'm glad for anything over 200. For COMLEX, my goal is the same, the national average of 500. Hopefully, I'll get it, but the test was bad enough that I'll take the passing score.

I'll update when I get the score report. Hopefully, it'll be good news.

USMLE World conversion - (UW x 2.4) + 84
COMLEX conversion - USMLE Score = 0.24 x COMLEX + 69

Boards are DONE!!!!

Boards are finally done. It was the longest 3 1/2 weeks worth of studying. I took the COMLEX on Tues then USMLE on Sat. Let me tell you, those are not fun and very scary.

First for COMLEX, I thought I was going to be fine going in to take the test. I got there early almost 1.5 hr early. But it was fine, I spent some quiet time going over the final cramming. Then I waited around the waiting room to go through the registration. I was schedule for 9am but I ended up starting at 8:30am. It was a fully 8hr exam with 45 min lunch. I didn't get out until 5:30pm with a fat headache. The test itself was interesting. Every year the test like to focus on one topic heavily while still covering everything else. This year was on Neuro. I got the version where it was at least 50% neuro related. The people who took it the day before and the days after mine weren't as heavy neuro related as mine was. What luck I got with the test. It got so bad that when I got out, I felt like crying because I don't think I have passed. I marked half of the questions and there were 2 blocks of question set where I ran out time going over the marked questions. I make it a point where I always put an answer to the question when I go through it the first time just so I won't run into the running out time problem. Now I'm justing praying to pass, I don't really care how high the score is, just need to 400/75 on m score sheet.

The questions themselves were interesting. There were ones where I literally had sit there and guess what they are trying to ask. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out what the point was with those questions. There were other questions that are very straight forward. The OMM portion of the test was very much what we've had on tests for our OTM class. But there were a few where I'm sure the proctor had an amusingg time watching me trying to position myself as the question asked. There were Chapman's point, treatment/diagnosis positions, and tons of upper extremity. I only got one sacrum question. My neuro questions were pharm, anatomy, path and others where I couldn't quite place into categories. The questions were not topics that I've had in class or perhaps, the professors just completely turn me off on neuro and I'm just in the denial phase. Anywhoo, the questions were what I was expecting.

Then Sat, I took USMLE at the same center and I arrived at the same time. So I did the same thing in the morning as I did for COMLEX. I started the test at 8:30am and finished at 4:30ish pm. The test was what I expected since I have done 55% of USMLE World qbank. The test was easier than the qbank. I felt very comfortable with the test. But really nothing stands out, the topics the tested was very equally distributed. They didn't really favor one topic or the other. The questions were more staright forward unlike the qbank where it requires multiple steps to get to the answers. There are a few on the tests that are like the qbank. I can't really say much since I like to binge and purge after the test. All I can say is that I felt much better after USMLE than COMLEX. Hahahaha. I will be laughing and rolling around if my USMLE score is better that my COMLEX score especially since I'm a DO student at KCOM.

We shall see in about 6wks time, early August. Long wait. ::sigh::

I will post the schedule that I end up with.