Zach's Blog

Monday : We reviewed different types of study designs and the lecturer confused us all by jumping back and forth between different topics. We finished a PBL session about STDs. One student tried to argue that AIDS isn't that bad. That got some interesting looks from the PBL facilitators. We got grades back for our first homework assignments. I went to a review for the content during lunch and people were surprisingly uppity about the grades they got. I'm not sure why so many people were worried because we were all told that we got passing grades and it's a pass fail course. Maybe they're planning to do really poorly on the final. We finished the day off with 2-3 hours of standardized patients while I tried to stay awake (Addie hasn't been sleeping lately). I then wrote some flash cards for the exam I have Wednesday morning. Tuesday : Two quick lectures on cohort studies and a technology and resources group meeting. The advisory deans have been having one on one ...

Monday : We had a problem based learning (PBL) case that was meant to exercise our public health and disease prevention knowledge. Besides that most of classes were just introduction to various topics and what's expected of us. After all of our classes were over we had the opportunity to sign up for special interest groups that occasionally meet and teach about various specialties and service opportunities during lunch. I signed up for several and got to do an ultrasound on some guys arm. He showed me what his artery looked like on the machine. I thoght it was pretty darn cool. Tuesday : Classes technically ended at 12:00, although I didn't get home until about 4:00.  We learned a little bit about statistics used for screening for diseases in our first lecture. In our second lecture a fourth year medical student taught us about societal determinants of health. As one student put it, "He talked so fast he sounded like Eminem." We then spent the remaining time in sm...

It was registration week and oh what a week it was! We started off the week by doing some exciting orientation. While we did do some fun activities involving paper work and training for N95 masks the majority of activities culminated in me meeting a bunch of new people, learning their names, and immediately forgetting their names because so much was going on. But that only covers Monday. Tuesday involved lots of set up for passwords and iPads (One of the mandatory tools for us to have is an iPad. Unfortunately, we aren't using them to play games.) Besides that most of the day was just listening to people go over resources available to medical students.  We did do an interesting mindfulness activity directed by the counseling center. We each got a box of raisins and spent five minutes using all five senses to "experience" the raisins. When we were invited to comment about our individual experiences throughout this activity I decided to restrain myself and not mention how...

Recently we moved to Rochester New York and brought an entire tribe with us to help us move in (AKA my family and Lexi's family). We went to Niagara falls where Addie was scared of the water and Zoey tried to lick the water. We went to the beach where I fell asleep in the sand and my mom got algae stuck in her swimsuit. We picked fresh berries at a local farm where my brother in law Aaron and I ate a month's worth of blueberries. We went to the Sacred Grove and gave the where my dad and I suggested to the sister missionaries some improved names for their stories ("The Subterfuge"). We visited the Erie Canal where my mother in law serenaded us with her beautiful old-timey song. It was a truly magical time filled with visits to Boston Market and Dunkin' Donuts (did you know America runs on Dunkin'?!). But now we're back to reality and trying to get use to our new life here. Here are some things since that have happened since the tribe left: I laughed ...