2.28.2011

Cougar Pride

ONE HALF of a semester left, then call me BYU Alumni!


Reasons I love the Cougs:


Jimmer Fredette = freaking awesome.  Getting krunk refers to chugging a case of Dr. Pepper and staying up until sunrise.  "Ivy League of the West," anybody?  Nationally Ranked, or Top In The Nation Programs are more the rule than the exception.  Professors pray for you before an exam.  Colleagues are super friendly.  Classy fans.  Most popular/chosen school in the nation (beating out Harvard, people).  Professors teach you the material intended for your class (instead of talking about their sex lives, or bashing on religion, or spewing political propaganda).  Education is subsidized by the LDS Church.  They're practically paying me to go here.


I could go on.  And on and on and on!


Why do you love BYU?

2.23.2011

Diarrhea

Today my Medical School Applications professor persuaded me to tell a story about a time I got severe diarrhea, which I told in front of an auditorium of pre-med students.  I would venture to say that is the strangest way I have ever contributed to a class discussion.

We were assigned to construct a true story from our lives which illustrates our perseverance, which will later be incorporated into a Personal Statement, which goes off into your first round of applications to the AAMC.  I thought about the time I went to Sonora, Mexico to build a house for Adrian, an impoverished ex-luchador who was trying to take care of his wife and kids in the slums of Obregon.  More stuff about that can be found here and here.

Anyways, on Wednesday night (the night before Thanksgiving), we ate our traditional Mexican hot dogs:



Oh man, they are so good.  I ate a couple, which were indescribably delicious, and also which gave me some explosive diarrhea.  haha.  I spent the next day helping to build Adrian's house, with some fun little stops to the backyard chicken coop for some private "emergency business." Even better, later that night at a Thanksgiving Celebration, I was trying so hard not to laugh when in danger of pooping myself as I shook the hand of the Governor.  It was so hilarious.

Life is a sweet experience, as long as you can learn to laugh at yourself.  Speaking of which, while writing this blog in my History of Creativity Class, Professor Strong (also hilarious) has been dancing like a ballerina, tromping around like Attila the Hun, and impersonating a chicken to the music of Beethoven and Haydn.

2.22.2011

Long-Awaited Update

Hello everybody!

I am still alive!  I have been largely absent from my blog recently, mostly because I have taken up a couple of extra jobs.  Life has been pretty crazy this and last semester.  Here's an update:

I now work for Altius Test Prep as a private tutor.  I have 8 students that I am personally responsible for, and I also proctor two group sessions per week.  I am still working on memorizing everybody's names, and I think I've just about got them all down.  It's a lot of fun, and keeps me on my toes.  I do so much studying on my own that it's a blessing to have a job in which I am interacting with other people.

In school, I am taking quite a few classes, the big ones being Orthopedic Impairments & Therapeutic Exercises (that mouthful is just one class), and Functional Anatomy.  Both of these classes have been lots of fun.  It's easy to do well when I love the classes so much.  It looks like I'm on track to finish my last semester with a 4.0!

In addition to paid work and school, I'm also volunteering with Dr. Kooyman in his research on osteoarthiritis, on the histology and sectioning team.  Mostly I operate a machine called a Microtome which slices joint segments of mice (6 nanometers at a time), which I then transfer to glass slides.  After we make a bunch of those we find the best ones, dye them with special indicators, and look for signs of osteoarthiritis.  I know it sounds pretty boring, but we actually have a lot of fun.

Though usually I've been volunteering Sunday afternoons at Primary Children's Hospital, I've decided to switch over to Saturdays, which I have been really happy about.  My Saturdays are a little more fun because I can spend them in either Salt Lake City or Provo, and my Sundays are more relaxed.  Playing with the children at the hospital is one of the highlights of my week!

This weekend I'll be returning to full activity after having an umbilical hernia correction some weeks ago.  I'm going to celebrate by going climbing, I think.

And that's it!  I hope to buy a camera soon to better document my fun times - without photos to supplement the text I feel the blog becomes dry and boring.  Happy February everybody!