My Saturday

Hi everyone!

It is nice and sunny outside, but I am cooped up inside my dorm room making a brochure on familiar hypercholesterolemia. At least there is college football to watch.

Despite our loss last weekend, I am looking forward to the Cal vs. USC game at 8 pm (ET). Get caught up! From calbears.com:

Kickoff - USC at California (Oct. 3, 2009)

No. 19/24 California (3-1, 0-1 Pac-10) returns to Memorial Stadium to host No. 7 USC (3-1, 1-1 Pac-10) this Saturday, Oct. 3 in a game to be televised live by ABC. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. With each team having already suffered a conference loss early in the season, the highly anticipated game has been transformed from one that most thought would determine the Pac-10 champion into one that both teams need to win to stay realistically in the Pac-10 title hunt.


The Golden Bears are looking to rebound from last Saturday's shocking 42-3 loss at the hands of Oregon in Eugene that ended their six-game overall win streak. Cal has still won nine in a row in Berkeley with its last defeat at Memorial Stadium coming against the Trojans the last time USC visited on Nov. 10, 2007. The nine-game home string of victories is only one shy of the longest under head coach Jeff Tedford.

The Golden Bears were dominant in their first three games of 2009, outscoring opponents by a 146-41 margin and moving up six spots from their No. 12 preseason ranking to the No. 6 spot in both the Associated Press Top 25 and USA Today poll prior to the Oregon game. After the loss to the Ducks, Cal fell to No. 19 in the USA Today poll and to No. 24 in the latest AP Top 25 rankings released on Sept. 27.

Cal started its season with home victories over Maryland (52-13) and Eastern Washington (59-7) - the Bears' first back-to-back 50-point efforts since 1973. The Golden Bears then took their show on the road with a convincing 35-21 win at Minnesota as Heisman Trophy candidate TB Jahvid Best broke a modern-era school record with five rushing TDs.

USC opened its 2009 season with a 56-3 thrashing of San Jose State but has struggled offensively since. The Trojans scored on their final drive to win 18-15 at Ohio State but were then knocked off 16-13 in Seattle by a Washington team that had won only one of its previous 16 games. USC righted the ship with a 27-6 victory over Washington State in its most recent contest last Saturday in Los Angeles.

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In other news, I took my first HPI this past week! I wore my white coat (which I had altered so now it sort of fits), and took a history of present illness on a standardized patient (an actor who pretended she had a cough). I started taking her blood pressure after that but then my time ran out. Whew! I can never find that brachial pulse. Anyway, I was really nervous because there were other students observing and taking notes to critique me afterwards, but in the end, it wasn't too bad!

Simon is coming in two weeks! I am so excited, I'm having dreams about it. I also bought my ticket home for Thanksgiving. Be ready California! I am coming home!

I'll end this with a picture from last Monday night, after our third set of exams:

My broken heart

I am not strong enough to college football.

My ring suggestions

My friends have been talking a lot about weddings lately (since I've reached that age at which they start pairing off and marrying one another), including how much an engagement ring is supposed to cost. I think three months salary is far too much to spend, and anyone who asks for more is probably high maintainance and not worth marrying anyway. Just kidding. I happened to see a discussion about it on Glamour.com today, and I've picked from their suggestions which ones I thought were sweet:

Erica Wiener, $100

shopbird.com, $595

Kaoru, $195.50

Melissa Joy Manning. $510


shopbird.com, $600


I don't know where this one is from, but I've seen a lot of similar (cheap and expensive) rings out there.

Do you like them?

My TV time

I am not very good at posting regularly. What has been occupying much of my time:

I started watching 3 or so weeks ago, and I'm now in the middle of season 5. One of the funniest and interesting shows I've ever seen. I cannot stop watching, but I have not let it affect my studies significantly. I am still studying every day and keeping my grades up. Don't worry.

I have also developed a ebay obssession, though I always get outbid immediately and I am too cheap to win anything. I still spend hours on that website...while I watch Weeds.

Several more things...

Today is Simon's birthday. Happy birthday Simon. It was also Shannon's birthday recently. Happy birthday Shannon.

Cal has been playing great football. I look forward to every game. Go bears!



Finally:



There might have been more that I wanted to say, but I've forgotten. I'll be back.

My mail

I received this in the mail today from my mom:

It says "Keep going! You can do it!"

On the inside, it says "I know you have what it takes to do this!"

My first exams

Hello!

I haven't said anything in a while. It's because I had my first two exams last Friday and all I did that week was study constantly. It wasn't exciting at all. However, my grades were posted this week, and I am happy with them. I used to be smart, and in college I thought I no longer was, but now I think I might still be.

Here are some pictures from orientation:

I've just discovered that the photos get loaded out of order. Therefore, we are starting from the end of the night to the beginning. This event was at Blackfinn restaurant/saloon. The purpose was mingling and meeting other first and second year medical students.

Girlfriends.

A picture of the room reserved for us.

I watched two movies over the past two weekends: Inglorious Bastards and Ponyo. Brad Pitt's accent was very unpleasant in IB, but I liked the movie overall. I tend to enjoy Tarentino movies. Ponyo is a Hayao Miyazaki anime produced by Disney. It had (unintentional?) hilarious moments, but a strange story. It also did not make sense. Why is there a man living in the ocean? Why is he drinking and where did he get those potions? Why does he have a well underwater? I have many other unanswered questions for Ponyo.

I want to watch 9, and while I was looking for the trailer for 9, I found the trailer for Nine. Now I want to watch both for my love of post-apocalyptic movies and also my love of musical theater.

9 Trailer - Watch more Movie Trailers

Should I fly home for Thanksgiving weekend? It will cost me around $400, and winterbreak starts two weeks after that. Simon is coming to visit me in October! Hopefully that will temper my homesickness.

I should start today's studying before I blog any more. Bye!

My American Life

The first part of this "This American Life" podcast involved a few of the subjects I'm most interested in (children/urban poverty/schooling/education). I listened to it today on the treadmill, and time passed by effortlessly.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=364

I also found out about a week ago that there is a "This American Life" t.v. show on Showtime! I had no idea! I've been streaming it from Netflix every day since, and I've watched all of season 2 and half of season 1. I watch when I'm not studying or in class or asleep. If you haven't seen it, don't hesitate to because it's wonderful.

Ira Glass is great!