Good evening everyone:) Its been some time since the last post. I have been more then ever trying to find the time, but it seems harder and harder. I've shifted a few things so I could write this, so hopefully it doesn't take too long!
First off, Id like to wish my sister a big Happy Birthday!!! Wish I was there to spend it with you. Once of the hardest things about being away from home for so long is missing events such as these. But with FaceTime, Skype etc, its never too hard to keep in touch. Happy Birthday!!
So where to start. It seems like last semester was already ages ago. Ill just mention quickly that last semester was a lot of fun. For those going into MED3/EBS4, you have a great semester ahead of you. It was certainly challenging but the material that you get to learn makes it so worth it. This semester so far is starting out the same and it makes me super happy.
Words of caution for last semester courses.
Path: Stay on top of the material and learn your histology! There is a lot of material to cover in this course. Its not super challenging, its simply the amount that makes it difficult to manage at times. I also found that it required a fairly strong histology background which was tough at first for me. If you really try to understand it in class, typically that's all you need to do aside from the usual reviewing. Don't worry too much about it until you see it for yourself.
Neuro: This course was very interesting. My undergrad was in neuroscience, but I will tell you I learned a tremendous amount it. Every aspect of it was clinically oriented which is exactly what you want from a Med school course. My only real word of advise it to go to class always. Everything you need to know will be said by the professor, all you have to do is listen:)
Microbiology: There is a lot of material here. Out of all the courses I took last semester, this was the one that stressed me out the most. I think I touched on this in a previous post, but the material will swallow you if you don't keep up. On an individual level, each concept you learn is very easy to understand. Nothing is conceptually difficult, it just becomes a mountain of material when you step back 4 weeks later and look at what you covered. Just make sure, like all other classes, that you always stay on top of it.
Behavioural: A relatively easy class. This course is taught by two professors and each have a fairly different teaching style. Its important to make sure you take as many notes in class as possible for the first two blocks. The professor has slides but they are not inclusive. You need to make sure you take down some of the examples he tells you in class. Alternatively, there is a packet going around that someone has made which includes many of the examples that he uses in class. It will be easy to find once you start the class.
The break
I suggest to everyone, if you have the opportunity, stay on the island for a break! There is a lot to explore and we simply don't have enough time to do it during the semester. If you enjoy adventurous stuff, rent a car and check out the island. Try to have a friend or family come down and just enjoy the island. I feel that I would be very disappointed if I left without truly experiencing it. There are some people in their last semester who have never even seen the atlantic side of the island. People just don't have time, or if there is no real reason then people just don't bother. Its a shame. You are going to live here for over a year, I think its important to know your surroundings! But to each his own I suppose. I don't have any regrets.
For me, I did pretty much everything I wanted to do on the island except explore the shipwreck. I ran out of time. I had about a week where my friend and parents were here, and after that, welcoming committee consumed the rest. Ill be sure to get there before I leave.
For those of you thinking about staying on the island, doing the welcoming committee is a great experience and it breaks up the idle time very well. Depending not the semester, it could be quite hectic (Which I experienced this September), but it is fulfilling. You get to help out a bunch of students who are in the same shoes as you were a few months prior. You get reimbursed 500US for doing it as well which is nice! When you come to the island and get greeted by the welcoming committee, you will understand pretty quickly what it entails and if its something you would be interested in!
Med4
So far so good for this semester. I am currently taking Pharmacology, Pathology 2, and ICM (Intro to Clinical Medicine). All three courses are shaping up to be excellent. The first week was a slow ease into things, but I can feel the pace and difficulty picking up. Im ready for it. Last semester!! Its all still pretty new, so I will give you some updates later.
Vaccinations
When you guys are on your way to the island for the first time, there are a number of vaccinations and titers etc. that you will need. When you enter into your last semester on the island, you will be required to double check that all your vaccinations are up to date for your clinical rotations in St. Kitts. You will similarly need the same vaccination proof for Main. My advice to you is to make sure that you look after this sooner then later. I find that there are a few students who slip through the cracks with regards to what they needed to provide for vaccination proof when entering the school, and then find out a few weeks before the start of their last semester that they are missing a bunch of stuff. Make sure that you follow the guidelines that are provided when you are accepted. For me, since I didn't go home last break I had to get some stuff done on the island. This really isn't too big a deal, it is just a pain if you want to go through insurance and what not. I was missing the lab results for MMR titers, and when I got my doctor to send them over, my Rubella titer was low. I needed to then get another MMR shot and redraw the titer on the island. I only had that too do, so not bad. The only problem is that stuff like this takes time, so if you leave it to the last minute, you won't be able to do rotations in the hospitals here in SK. You need to have your paper work in before the end of September, which is pretty tight if you only discover you are missing things when you return to the island for your EBS5/MED4 semester. Better to plan this stuff out well in advance. The only thing that we will all have to do is get a PPD (TB) Test. This needs to be done within a certain timeframe of starting in the hospitals, so you will need to do this on the island most likely. There is lots of time for that, don't worry. Its just the vaccination and drawing titers that is a bit of a pain.
Letters of Reference
One of the first times that you will start collecting letters of reference (Aside from applying to UMHS) will be when you are getting ready to leave the island and head to main. Just keep in mind that you should get at least 2 letters of reference from professors at the school. My advice is to be one of the early ones. If you have an idea of which profs you wants to ask to write a letter for you, make sure to see them early in the semester. Dress up like you are going to an interview, it will mean a lot. Shake their hand and be professional, regardless of how buddy buddy you are. It is very important to have good letters of recommendation for the eventual day that you apply to residencies, so try to plan accordingly. If you are going to ask a professor for a letter and you have to make sure you write your name down for them, even if they agree to it, its probably not be the best move. There will be some professors you connect with more then others. Those should be the ones who you should ask. Remember, it is not a privilege that you are giving the professor to write a letter for you, it is something that you should be honoured to get from them. Some people have that concept a little messed up.
Things I've learned
-When you want to flash the high beams in a right hand drive car, you will most definitely just end up squirting windshield washer fluid. Takes some time to get used to:)
-There is only Premium gas on the island! No such thing as regular grade here.
-When you take the scenic railroad tour on the island, they give you unlimited alcohol:)
-There are some crabs that don't live in the water. Like they simply just live on land their whole life.
-There is a fruit here on the island called Kinep, Which is delicious. Its like a little ball of slime, but it taste so good. Its like candy.
-Having to wear long pants for classes is not fun. Especially when you walk to school in the caribbean heat.
-Bobbsys Wing's is a fantastic place to get chicken wings
-A super cool hike that is relatively easy to do is the Radio tower hike. It is the tower that you see from school up on the mountain. It is a great beginner hike, the only problem is that you have to climb the tower a little bit to get a good view.
-My laptop went all purple and spazzy the other day. I though it was the end, but it is back.
-Dont go to the hairdresser on the Saturday before school starts. School also starts for the kittitian kids and they all get haircuts on that day.
Thats all for now. When you have every hour of the day accounted for, taking 30 minutes to write this is hard to manage! So I hope to have another post soon enough :)
Cheers,
Mike
First off, Id like to wish my sister a big Happy Birthday!!! Wish I was there to spend it with you. Once of the hardest things about being away from home for so long is missing events such as these. But with FaceTime, Skype etc, its never too hard to keep in touch. Happy Birthday!!
So where to start. It seems like last semester was already ages ago. Ill just mention quickly that last semester was a lot of fun. For those going into MED3/EBS4, you have a great semester ahead of you. It was certainly challenging but the material that you get to learn makes it so worth it. This semester so far is starting out the same and it makes me super happy.
Words of caution for last semester courses.
Path: Stay on top of the material and learn your histology! There is a lot of material to cover in this course. Its not super challenging, its simply the amount that makes it difficult to manage at times. I also found that it required a fairly strong histology background which was tough at first for me. If you really try to understand it in class, typically that's all you need to do aside from the usual reviewing. Don't worry too much about it until you see it for yourself.
Neuro: This course was very interesting. My undergrad was in neuroscience, but I will tell you I learned a tremendous amount it. Every aspect of it was clinically oriented which is exactly what you want from a Med school course. My only real word of advise it to go to class always. Everything you need to know will be said by the professor, all you have to do is listen:)
Microbiology: There is a lot of material here. Out of all the courses I took last semester, this was the one that stressed me out the most. I think I touched on this in a previous post, but the material will swallow you if you don't keep up. On an individual level, each concept you learn is very easy to understand. Nothing is conceptually difficult, it just becomes a mountain of material when you step back 4 weeks later and look at what you covered. Just make sure, like all other classes, that you always stay on top of it.
Behavioural: A relatively easy class. This course is taught by two professors and each have a fairly different teaching style. Its important to make sure you take as many notes in class as possible for the first two blocks. The professor has slides but they are not inclusive. You need to make sure you take down some of the examples he tells you in class. Alternatively, there is a packet going around that someone has made which includes many of the examples that he uses in class. It will be easy to find once you start the class.
The break
I suggest to everyone, if you have the opportunity, stay on the island for a break! There is a lot to explore and we simply don't have enough time to do it during the semester. If you enjoy adventurous stuff, rent a car and check out the island. Try to have a friend or family come down and just enjoy the island. I feel that I would be very disappointed if I left without truly experiencing it. There are some people in their last semester who have never even seen the atlantic side of the island. People just don't have time, or if there is no real reason then people just don't bother. Its a shame. You are going to live here for over a year, I think its important to know your surroundings! But to each his own I suppose. I don't have any regrets.
For me, I did pretty much everything I wanted to do on the island except explore the shipwreck. I ran out of time. I had about a week where my friend and parents were here, and after that, welcoming committee consumed the rest. Ill be sure to get there before I leave.
For those of you thinking about staying on the island, doing the welcoming committee is a great experience and it breaks up the idle time very well. Depending not the semester, it could be quite hectic (Which I experienced this September), but it is fulfilling. You get to help out a bunch of students who are in the same shoes as you were a few months prior. You get reimbursed 500US for doing it as well which is nice! When you come to the island and get greeted by the welcoming committee, you will understand pretty quickly what it entails and if its something you would be interested in!
Med4
So far so good for this semester. I am currently taking Pharmacology, Pathology 2, and ICM (Intro to Clinical Medicine). All three courses are shaping up to be excellent. The first week was a slow ease into things, but I can feel the pace and difficulty picking up. Im ready for it. Last semester!! Its all still pretty new, so I will give you some updates later.
Vaccinations
When you guys are on your way to the island for the first time, there are a number of vaccinations and titers etc. that you will need. When you enter into your last semester on the island, you will be required to double check that all your vaccinations are up to date for your clinical rotations in St. Kitts. You will similarly need the same vaccination proof for Main. My advice to you is to make sure that you look after this sooner then later. I find that there are a few students who slip through the cracks with regards to what they needed to provide for vaccination proof when entering the school, and then find out a few weeks before the start of their last semester that they are missing a bunch of stuff. Make sure that you follow the guidelines that are provided when you are accepted. For me, since I didn't go home last break I had to get some stuff done on the island. This really isn't too big a deal, it is just a pain if you want to go through insurance and what not. I was missing the lab results for MMR titers, and when I got my doctor to send them over, my Rubella titer was low. I needed to then get another MMR shot and redraw the titer on the island. I only had that too do, so not bad. The only problem is that stuff like this takes time, so if you leave it to the last minute, you won't be able to do rotations in the hospitals here in SK. You need to have your paper work in before the end of September, which is pretty tight if you only discover you are missing things when you return to the island for your EBS5/MED4 semester. Better to plan this stuff out well in advance. The only thing that we will all have to do is get a PPD (TB) Test. This needs to be done within a certain timeframe of starting in the hospitals, so you will need to do this on the island most likely. There is lots of time for that, don't worry. Its just the vaccination and drawing titers that is a bit of a pain.
Letters of Reference
One of the first times that you will start collecting letters of reference (Aside from applying to UMHS) will be when you are getting ready to leave the island and head to main. Just keep in mind that you should get at least 2 letters of reference from professors at the school. My advice is to be one of the early ones. If you have an idea of which profs you wants to ask to write a letter for you, make sure to see them early in the semester. Dress up like you are going to an interview, it will mean a lot. Shake their hand and be professional, regardless of how buddy buddy you are. It is very important to have good letters of recommendation for the eventual day that you apply to residencies, so try to plan accordingly. If you are going to ask a professor for a letter and you have to make sure you write your name down for them, even if they agree to it, its probably not be the best move. There will be some professors you connect with more then others. Those should be the ones who you should ask. Remember, it is not a privilege that you are giving the professor to write a letter for you, it is something that you should be honoured to get from them. Some people have that concept a little messed up.
Things I've learned
-When you want to flash the high beams in a right hand drive car, you will most definitely just end up squirting windshield washer fluid. Takes some time to get used to:)
-There is only Premium gas on the island! No such thing as regular grade here.
-When you take the scenic railroad tour on the island, they give you unlimited alcohol:)
-There are some crabs that don't live in the water. Like they simply just live on land their whole life.
-There is a fruit here on the island called Kinep, Which is delicious. Its like a little ball of slime, but it taste so good. Its like candy.
-Having to wear long pants for classes is not fun. Especially when you walk to school in the caribbean heat.
-Bobbsys Wing's is a fantastic place to get chicken wings
-A super cool hike that is relatively easy to do is the Radio tower hike. It is the tower that you see from school up on the mountain. It is a great beginner hike, the only problem is that you have to climb the tower a little bit to get a good view.
-My laptop went all purple and spazzy the other day. I though it was the end, but it is back.
-Dont go to the hairdresser on the Saturday before school starts. School also starts for the kittitian kids and they all get haircuts on that day.
Thats all for now. When you have every hour of the day accounted for, taking 30 minutes to write this is hard to manage! So I hope to have another post soon enough :)
Cheers,
Mike