Summer--Week's goal: don't rupture the rectum

So, instead of studying, I will procrastinate! After one week, I've already slipped into the life of a student: I plan my day around studying, and dread it the entire time; I eat fast food french fries with friends; I'm exhausted and overwhelmed; I smell on dissection days (okay, this isn't too normal); and I drink more coffee than my stomach can hold or my heart can take--I think it's going to mess up my liver.

It's Monday, which means we had our 2nd dissection. Therefore, even after thoroughly scrubbing myself down in the shower and washing my hands religiously, I still smell like weird formaldehyde chemicals and...other things your probably don't want to know about.
The body is such a...frustrating thing! You dig around for hours looking for the tiniest structures. Then when you find it--some nerve that looks white like everything else--they tell you, "Good job, now do it bilaterally." NO. I don't want to go find it on the other side.

Today, we checked out the spinal cord. As in we had to remove a piece of the vertebral column. We made little "windows" along the back to look at particular structures. In a particularly delicate maneuver, we had to chisel out a small piece of the sacrum (your butt bone--but not your tailbone). Unfortunately, you're at high risk for rupturing the rectum, which would have ruined all of our lives for the next two months. Luckily, this did not occur. Goal met.

Other things that happen in school: just when you think you're caught up on material, think again, sucka! Anatomy and biochemistry are by far the craziest classes. Not to mention, I still have my finals for MPH (epidemiology and biostatistics) due at the end of the week. Sheesh. At least the MPH is almost over!

We're all so busy that we leap for joy when we get out of school at noon because that means we can study for the whole afternoon! This sounds insane, but when they're feeding you information like it's coming out of a fire hose, you are so ecstatic from a lull in the material.

Other things at school (because this is really all my life is): we have this banquet on Friday. We do fun things too! We even have liquor bought and organized for "pre-party." This is what happens when a bunch of type A's get together for partying--it's pre-scheduled.

I'm sorry to say my life is sort of boring. Next time, I'll hopefully have some good stories. Hope everyone is well!

Summer