Round 2

Ahhhhh....you smell that?  It's the delightful aroma of a new beginning.  Spring is in the air.  And clearly by "spring", I mean biochemistry and genetics.  I officially survived my first block of medical school, scraping by with B's in both anatomy and histology.  But I'm told B = MD, so I'll take it and move on.

Today was the first day of class for biochem.  (I personally like A&M's shorthand for that class (BICH), which I will be using from this point forward, which means take a mental note and store it away in that little brain of yours.)  I'm excited about studying a new subject, I just wish it wasn't this one.  The class is graded on a curve (not a bell curve, mind you, one where only 6 people get A's and the majority get C's - and for those who don't know, C does NOT = MD).  My teacher for the first exam is an angry, angry soul.  I can't imagine living with such hostility towards life.  Needless to say, I miss good ol' Professor Tsai already.  Dr. Spielmann won't be wearing any crazy hats, or showing youtube videos during class, or inviting me out to play soccer with him.  I used to have such fond memories of BICH, but I'm afraid, my friends, that this is soon to change.  Alas, I realize that this is no longer undergrad and it's time to buckle down.

Although the thoughts of studying glycolysis and protein folding does not make my spirit flutter, I must say that I am relishing this new beginning.  My slate is clean.  I feel as if I have been given a second chance to prove myself.  And hopefully with the help of Mr. Genius himself, Eduardo, "tutoring" me every day, I can do half as good as he does.

For those of you who don't know, Ed is a member of the "family".  I believe I have not blogged about family, which is quite remarkable.  In fact, they would probably disown me if they knew this.  Gross Anatomy Table #5 consisted of Cara, Carol, Mary, Mike, Ed, and Steve.  From the beginning, they hit it off as a group and formed a tight, cohesive study group, but more importantly, became best of friends.  I was fortunate enough to be one of Ed's Histology lab partners, and after him listening to me wallow in self pity about how poorly I was doing in Anatomy, his dear soul invited me to join their family in a study session the following day.  Well it worked, my grades started improving, and I became a permanent groupie of table #5.  I knew I had been officially adopted when I was included in their super secret list serve of emails.  We recently adopted another member, Rachel, into our family, bringing the grand total to 8.

For those of you who care (which I know is all 5 of you who read this blog), here is an exaggerated, quick break down of the family (in order of the picture above):

Mike: high maintenance California boy, super sweet, "dad".

Carol: the artsy fartsy, always smiling one.

Rachel: reserved, witty, athletic.

Ed: crazy army dude, ridiculously smart, "naughty uncle".

Mary: the "tall girl", makes sure everyone is happy and well fed ("mom").

Cara: miss popular, outgoing, token liberal of the family.

Steve: outwardly a stud, inwardly a huge nerd. 

In celebration of finishing the anatomy block, we packed up our cars and took a mini road trip to Mary's cabin at Lake Cumberland this past weekend.  It was raining/sleeting the whole time, but that was fine by us because it made the hot tub that much more endearing, and cuddling up on the couch in front of the fire so much more enjoyable.  But it is now back to reality, and although our family is no longer tied together through lab, we aim to remain one with our weekly Grey's Anatomy parties, Friday night family dinner, and study sessions throughout the week.  No one can break us apart, for our family "hit the freaking jackpot".*

*actual quote by an outsider who is jealous of us.