Evening!
I hope you're all doing well:) Tonight I'm back too studying at the outdoor spot. It's a beautiful night here aside from the spider sitting behind me. Its one of those spiders that's just too big to step on.. So about every minute I have to look behind me to make sure its not coming any closer. Today was cloudy and windy but it made for a nice break from the heat. Just enough wind to keep the bugs away. Also, for the last hour there has been firework sounding bangs but I don't know why.. I cant see any fireworks but I'm hoping fireworks are what's making the sounds!
If you read my last post you know that we had our block exams on Monday. They were similar to block one in that the day went smoothly. The big difference was the one extra exam this block and the fact that I didn't feel nearly as prepared. Its not because I didn't study, in fact I probably studied more. Its just that the amount of material we were required to know was much greater. I would spend 16 hours a day studying the weekend before... I mean last block I actually took sunday off! This block I was still learning new material on Sunday:P That being said, the studying paid off. I got two great marks and a few acceptable marks (in my opinion anyways). My difficult course was Anatomy.. I dropped my course mark by a few points but Its still a decent mark overall.. All my marks went up except for anatomy. I know after last block I gave you a fairly extensive overview of the day and how I prepared, but to be honest things didn't change much. The one difference was physical diagnosis which we didn't have for block 1. My advcie for this course (written anyways) is to attend the TA reviews and keep up with the material. It isn't really challenging, its just fairly specific and finicky. Go over and over the class presentations and make sure you are comfortable with everything. Don't just gloss over it. If you leave it to the last minute and skim, you will miss the fine points and unfortunately its the fine points that they test. Also be very careful when reading the exam questions. If you're not careful you will miss a lot of simple points. So we are now halfway done the academic assessments and only a month and a half to go! I'm very content with where I am but it will feel great getting on the airplane to head back home for Christmas!
I'm trying to remember what has happened since the last time I wrote. After my parents left it was block week so nothing really happened... I tried studying at home for a few nights and I was surprised that I could actually get a fair bit done! I think the key is only studying when the temperature inside is just right. Another good thing about being at home is being able to talk myself through things. I retain info a lot better when I actually speak everything I am thinking as If I'm teaching someone. If I need to learn a whole lot of information in a short amount of time I find that this technique works best. Unfortunately this doesn't work very well for the people around me, so I'm limited :P
One fun thing I get to do this week is to participate in a health clinic at the school. It is completely on a volunteer basis and you get assigned to do a specific station. I got assigned to Blood glucose. Some of the other stations were Blood Pressure, Vision, BMI, and Breast exams. For a section of tomorrow we will have people coming to the school to attend the clinic. Last semester they did something similar except they all set up an outpost in one of the far out communities on the island. I think that would have been very interesting. Either way, it will be a great experience. Normally after block exams the first weekend is the most lenient in terms of being able to do fun non school things, so I hope to be able to relax for a bit. On Saturday the school is hosting "Sunfest" which is essentially a beach party. We get free food and free use of the beach things like paddle boarding and snorkeling etc. It doesn't cost the students anything which is super cool. While it sounds like a lot of fun, I'm not sure if I am going to go. I will likely do something Friday night instead. Also on Sunday there is a big hike organized. It is altogether an 8 hour hike up the mountatain to a body of water above the clouds. It sounds super interesting, so If I decide I want to do that I'd rather not have spent my whole Saturday at the beach. Ill let you know what I decide to do :P That's really it for now folks. Ill be sure to keep you updated along the way!
Things I learned over the past few weeks
1) If you are capable of climbing a tree you are equally capable of falling out of the tree. I think it was a first for me...
2) Having a spare computer is one of the best things. (my computer broke last week...) Just make sure that when you get IT to see if they can fix it, that you don't take the laptop and send it back to Canada before they put back your harddrive and screw it all together.... opps.
3) Don't go to subway unless you like to paying 10 dollars CDN for a 6' sub.
4) People have started to realize how comfy scrubs are.
5 I just realized that those sounds most likely are fireworks and are mostly likely due to Guy Fawkes night? Are fireworks normally a thing?
6) I just freaked out a bit because I realized I didn't look back at the spider even once while writing this. (still in the same spot fyi)
Good vibes everyone:)
Cheers,
Mike
I hope you're all doing well:) Tonight I'm back too studying at the outdoor spot. It's a beautiful night here aside from the spider sitting behind me. Its one of those spiders that's just too big to step on.. So about every minute I have to look behind me to make sure its not coming any closer. Today was cloudy and windy but it made for a nice break from the heat. Just enough wind to keep the bugs away. Also, for the last hour there has been firework sounding bangs but I don't know why.. I cant see any fireworks but I'm hoping fireworks are what's making the sounds!
If you read my last post you know that we had our block exams on Monday. They were similar to block one in that the day went smoothly. The big difference was the one extra exam this block and the fact that I didn't feel nearly as prepared. Its not because I didn't study, in fact I probably studied more. Its just that the amount of material we were required to know was much greater. I would spend 16 hours a day studying the weekend before... I mean last block I actually took sunday off! This block I was still learning new material on Sunday:P That being said, the studying paid off. I got two great marks and a few acceptable marks (in my opinion anyways). My difficult course was Anatomy.. I dropped my course mark by a few points but Its still a decent mark overall.. All my marks went up except for anatomy. I know after last block I gave you a fairly extensive overview of the day and how I prepared, but to be honest things didn't change much. The one difference was physical diagnosis which we didn't have for block 1. My advcie for this course (written anyways) is to attend the TA reviews and keep up with the material. It isn't really challenging, its just fairly specific and finicky. Go over and over the class presentations and make sure you are comfortable with everything. Don't just gloss over it. If you leave it to the last minute and skim, you will miss the fine points and unfortunately its the fine points that they test. Also be very careful when reading the exam questions. If you're not careful you will miss a lot of simple points. So we are now halfway done the academic assessments and only a month and a half to go! I'm very content with where I am but it will feel great getting on the airplane to head back home for Christmas!
I'm trying to remember what has happened since the last time I wrote. After my parents left it was block week so nothing really happened... I tried studying at home for a few nights and I was surprised that I could actually get a fair bit done! I think the key is only studying when the temperature inside is just right. Another good thing about being at home is being able to talk myself through things. I retain info a lot better when I actually speak everything I am thinking as If I'm teaching someone. If I need to learn a whole lot of information in a short amount of time I find that this technique works best. Unfortunately this doesn't work very well for the people around me, so I'm limited :P
One fun thing I get to do this week is to participate in a health clinic at the school. It is completely on a volunteer basis and you get assigned to do a specific station. I got assigned to Blood glucose. Some of the other stations were Blood Pressure, Vision, BMI, and Breast exams. For a section of tomorrow we will have people coming to the school to attend the clinic. Last semester they did something similar except they all set up an outpost in one of the far out communities on the island. I think that would have been very interesting. Either way, it will be a great experience. Normally after block exams the first weekend is the most lenient in terms of being able to do fun non school things, so I hope to be able to relax for a bit. On Saturday the school is hosting "Sunfest" which is essentially a beach party. We get free food and free use of the beach things like paddle boarding and snorkeling etc. It doesn't cost the students anything which is super cool. While it sounds like a lot of fun, I'm not sure if I am going to go. I will likely do something Friday night instead. Also on Sunday there is a big hike organized. It is altogether an 8 hour hike up the mountatain to a body of water above the clouds. It sounds super interesting, so If I decide I want to do that I'd rather not have spent my whole Saturday at the beach. Ill let you know what I decide to do :P That's really it for now folks. Ill be sure to keep you updated along the way!
Things I learned over the past few weeks
1) If you are capable of climbing a tree you are equally capable of falling out of the tree. I think it was a first for me...
2) Having a spare computer is one of the best things. (my computer broke last week...) Just make sure that when you get IT to see if they can fix it, that you don't take the laptop and send it back to Canada before they put back your harddrive and screw it all together.... opps.
3) Don't go to subway unless you like to paying 10 dollars CDN for a 6' sub.
4) People have started to realize how comfy scrubs are.
5 I just realized that those sounds most likely are fireworks and are mostly likely due to Guy Fawkes night? Are fireworks normally a thing?
6) I just freaked out a bit because I realized I didn't look back at the spider even once while writing this. (still in the same spot fyi)
Good vibes everyone:)
Cheers,
Mike