Where has she been?!

Yes, I have been gone for awhile. But I can rationalize away the disappearance:
1. Last week was TEST WEEK
Yes, that's right. The dreaded first medical exam. I spent almost all Monday and Tuesday studying at school (until the wee hours of the morning) along with some of my other nerdy friends. And while I was sitting there studying the common topic was, "How did 77/280 people in the M2 class get into the danger zone on this exam?!?!"

Explanation: My school uses a standardized score. The average becomes equivalent to 500. One standard deviation above and below (aka 400-600) is passing. If you are above 600 you are honoring; if you are below 400 you are in the "danger zone"... meaning if you don't shape up, you might be retaking the class in the summer.

The general consensus was that we were only talking to people who were actually studying consistently over the past 3 weeks. To which I replied, "I feel like everyone has been studying and that everyone feels like they know their stuff." People told me I was imagining things.

Wednesday was test day: Anatomy lab practical 9-12; Anatomy written 1-3; Histology written 3-5. Needless to say, it was a long day. But afterwards, again everyone seemed to think that they had done okay.

Thursday our Histology prof said that the scores were looking good. And then our Anatomy prof leaked that the average was somewhere near an 80%!!! WHAT?!?! That is not looking good. Why? It means that you HAVE to get a 75% to pass, whereas, if the average was lower, you might be able to get by with a 70%.

When I told this to some M2s, they looked astonished. Then promptly told us there average on the first exam was a 69%. I'm hoping that our averages drop. Otherwise, I'm screwed.

2. Wednesday night was POST GROSS PARTY
Let's just say that med students know how to party, and we did party after our exam. We headed out to a local bar to drink, dance, and celebrate the fact that we made it through our first exam. We had fun until about 2-3 am, and then somehow made it to class the next morning at 10 am (let's just say that there was lots of coffee and an after class nap involved).

3. Thursday was MOVIE NIGHT
Now, I should probably used Thursday night to prepare for Friday (since Thursday was like throwing a brick at my head and expecting it to stick, rather than knock me over), but a group of us went out to a movie instead. Superbad, to be specific. Which, I might add, is a great "post-exam, minimal thinking required" type of movie.

4. It's Labor day and I went camping with the family
I headed up state to meet up with my family for a fun-filled weekend of camping in Traverse City. We spent Saturday at the beach and on Sunday mom and I went to all the vineyards on Missions Point for wine tasting. I only ended up getting one bottle (White Cherry Wine), but I was very tempted to buy at least 2 more. The only thing stopping me was the brain telling me, "You're on financial aid. You don't have the money for this right now. Stop, but it back." Hmm, so many good things. I did, however, cave into buying Cherry Raspberry Perserves! YAY!

The rest of the weekend was spent playing with my puppy (whom was gotten very big in the last month and even more cute) and pseudo-studying... I made flashcards for 3 lectures.

All-in-all. a very restful and fun weekend. But now, the books are starting to crowd in and yelling at me as to how much of a slacker I've been. More specifically, Gray's Anatomy is calling my name oh so softly, and I'm about to have an affair with Netter.