It feels good to have one quarter of medical school behind me! Having 'survived' the strenuousness of finals and realized just how much I have learned in such a short period of time, I feel like I can better navigate my winter quarter.
My winter break was exactly what I wanted it to be - relaxing, rejuvenating, and an opportunity to reconnect with friends and family. I spent the first part of my break in Hood River, Oregon with Alex's family and then made my way back to the Seattle area to spend the Christmas holiday with my family. After a week and a half based on Whidbey and tons of time spent baking, cooking, reading and enjoying being obligation-free, I flew back to the bay area to take advantage of the time and explore the bay area/peninsula a bit.
Immediately after getting back, I had a reunion with my college roommate Rachel who had flown up to visit friends. I had not seen her in a year and a half, so it was wonderful to spend a day in SF eating good food and savoring perfect "winter" weather (a slight edge of crispness in the air to begin the day, but then exquisitely clear and sunny, with temperatures high enough that Rachel was wishing she had shorts - crazy talk for winter, I say). I was able to go on a hike in the Santa Cruz Mountains with Rachel, Alex, and several of my medical school classmates and after bidding farewell to Rachel, Alex and I headed to Tahoe to test out the slopes.
We spent two nights in South Lake Tahoe with 5 of my classmates at a cute little cabin. Tahoe has absolutely no snow right now, which is completely unusual. I had never been to Tahoe until that weekend, so I have no frame of reference. But the ski areas are only offering a few runs at each location, purely based on the amount of manmade snow they have to offer. Nevertheless, we spent a full day skiing at Kirkwood Meadows. It was beautiful and we had fun, but the snow was certainly all but ideal. Our time at Tahoe was a perfect conclusion to my break, but when the first day of class rolled around, I did not feel ready to let go of what had been an incredibly fulfilling/meaningful time of respite.
School has been really good so far, although I am still readjusting to the pace and demands that come along with our day to day schedule. I am taking Immunology, Neurobiology, Head & Neck Anatomy, Neuroanatomy, Intro to Human Health & Disease (includes Pharmacology, Microbiology, etc.), and Practice of Medicine (includes clinical skills and health policy). Winter quarter is the densest in terms of required class time of any quarter at Stanford. There are plenty of rumors going around that it is the toughest also. I think I just need to figure out how to organize everything and keep myself moving forward, especially amidst other things I am trying to be involved, such as planning the outdoor orientation trip and contributing to the school-wide wellness committee.
Last weekend, I joined about 40 of my classmates back at Tahoe for a two-day, med school subsidized escape from school. Most people went skiing, but since Tahoe still doesn't have any snow/only 5% of Kirkwood is open, Alex and I stayed near the rental house and went hiking on the rim trail with some other people who decided to stay off the slopes. The weekend was a ton of fun, although it served as another excuse to be in denial about school being back in full swing.
I am grateful that this week is a short one. Right now, I am having a hard time being ok with missing the snow in Seattle, as I love snow days. Why did I move somewhere where snow days will never happen?! :-) Ah well. I will just have to "ooh" and "awe" at the pictures people are posting on Facebook.
Lots of meetings this week and lots of lecture to bring me to yet another weekend. Hopefully I can catch up on work enough to feel like I can initiate some of my goals for this quarter, mainly to achieve better balance between the time I spend studying and the time I spend doing things that are either meaningful or relaxing or both. I know this is a long journey I have begun, so I am trying to put less pressure on myself than I did last quarter. I'll let you all know how that goes!
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