My Life here in Wisconsin

Are you prepared! Here comes a post. I am living in Milwaukee Wisconsin in the little suburb of wauwatosa (tosa for short). City names here are really neat. They come from the native americans that used to live around these parts that have since been put on random reservations, one of which sits right down town and is a huge casino called patawonoma or something like that. There are other names like waukesha, shaboigan, and menonemia. Another interesting thing about living here is understanding that the counties are always the same name as the city. For example, I live in milwaukee county but not really milwaukee city. But my mailing address works fine as milwaukee city. Seperating them is quite difficult really. All in all I quite love living out here.
In this post I am going to talk about the many fun adventures I've had since coming out here. I'm not all that good at organizing my posts, so if you find it a little hard to follow I apologize.

I will start things off with what I do most.

Here I am in a "nerd" room at the medical college. This was a picture my friend took of me right before our block 1 tests. I had just laid down for a pre-test nap. So sleeping isn't what I do most with my time, its studying for tests! And more than just having the motivation of looming tests, I often find myself feeling an urgency to be ready when it comes to being tested by real patients really needing my help. There is so much to learn I just hope I can hang on to enough of it to do some good.
Our school schedule is pretty nice actually. The first semester has been divided up into four blocks. The first, third, and fourth block consist of three plus weeks of material followed by a week of tests in all classes. Block two was 4 plus weeks of material followed by a week of tests. Other medical schools follow this same block style while others use a manner similar to my undergraduate experience where you have your tests from each class spread out over the semester, basically giving you at least a test a week. I quite enjoy this block style of learning. Having a "finals week" type of feeling means that after tests have finished you have a fresh start with the new material in all your classes. It also means that I get a much needed free weekend where I don't feel guilty at all for not picking up a book. I also enjoy not having lectures for a week. This allows me to really focus on the material being tested.
Currently we are in our fourth and final block of the semester. Only two weeks left of classes and then a finals week of tests. After that I will be an eighth of a doctor....I know, not all that impressive. The classes we have been taking this semester are gross anatomy, biochemistry, human development, fundamentals of human behavior, genetics, and a clinical continuum course that includes patient centered care theory, medical interviewing, and evidence based medicine. I have enjoyed classes so far. My favorite classes are the ones that involve direct clinial correlations being described.
Beyond just going to class (or not going to class and listening to everything online) and taking tests, we are encouraged to be active in clubs and interest groups. I have helped with a global health fair, phonathon, tricker treating for can foods, go to institute every wednesday at noon, become certified to do eye screenings, attend meetings for interest groups of different specialties, and I sing with the acapella group once a week preparing for this next week where we are going to go carroling to parts of the hospital, sing at a memorial service for our body donors, sing at a variety fair, and somewhere else. I also will be playing with kids who have sickle cell anemia coming in for blood infusions once a week, volunteering each saturday morning at a free clinic for the uninsured, lobbying for a day in washington DC, and who knows what else. On top of that, just today I started what we call our mentor program. We are assigned a doctor to kind of shadow six different times during this year. We are to observe and learn, then put into practice what we have learned about taking histories, performing basic physical exams, and find application for everything else we learn. I have been paired with a physiatrist. The specialty is called physical medicine and rehabilitation. I have been interested in this specialty for a while now and look forward to getting some good exposure to it early on. Happy day oh happy day! - I didn't pass out while watching the doctor give a cortisone injection. I guess there IS hope for me, and I have come a long ways since kindergarten. It was an eye opening experience today.

So enough about school, though I really could go on and on, and probably do a seperate post on every aspect, but I really don't think anyone wants to really know that much or else they too would be here in medical school where that takes up 95% of available neurons.

What else do I do here in Wisconsin? The other part of my life involves the church. We are so blessed to have an awesome singles ward of over 100 ysa. Our bishoprick is absolutely wonderful! They work so hard and dedicate so much time to helping us progress. I have been blessed with quality friends out here that I have yet to really feel homesick. Of course I miss family and friends, but there is little time for those to permeate my mind when I have so many to think about out here. I have once again been called to the activities committee as the co-chair. This is perfect because it requires me to leave my books and head out for a good time with great people. I will put a picture of our most recent activity - a dinner/games, fireside, and dance- where I got beat by a girl in a pie eating contest! I came in a close second, but there was no question she beat me. We do quite a lot as a ward- FHE each monday and usually a weekend activity of some sort. Once a month a get down to the chicago temple with the ward to do baptisms for the dead. This last time I went early and was able to do sealings, a session, and initiatories! It was awesome! Lately I have been singing a lot with groups in the ward- for the funeral of our bishop's dad, ward choir, and a missionary choir singing this sunday downtown. I always envied those with tenor ranges... well out here I have become a tenor. It's not that my voice has changed, we just need tenors so I give it my best shot. It has been so fun! Everyone in our ward is so great. The other med students and resididents are so kind and helpful. Missionary work abounds. I absolutely love it!

Just for fun: Well there is a little time for having fun. Like I said I get one weekend every month about. What have I done? The art galleries here in milwaukee are fantastic! Downtown there are tons of theatre so a friend and I went and saw "Isn't it Romantic" a compilation of love songs that made reminded me of my Papa. Twice I have made the trip to chicago to see "wicked" the musical, one with Sean, my brother, and the other with a date! I saw myself in my first big screen motion picture where I appeared in highschool musical as an extra. I saw the milwaukee orchestra on a super fun date where we played farkle at IHOP afterwards. I play tennis with my roomate. I just finished our intramural season of flag football. That kind of gives a run down of the highlights of living out here.

Well that is an inside scoop to my life here in medical school. There is still much to blog about, but I know many of your have stopped reading long ago. The main point of this post is to share that I truly love living out here in Wisconsin and I know Heavenly Father knows who I am!