It's Aliiiiive!

Quick post because I have free time right now and am not sure how often this will happen in the next week or two. I am supposed to be at the MSAC mixer (basically a student/faculty wine and cheese at the super-funky student center with the leather couches, huge bar, gigantic pool table, extensive gym, enclosed outdoor atrium etc etc...they do treat us med students nice, oh my), but Jon is coming down with what I suspect to be strep throat (probably prepetrated by viruses closely related to the ones who, until recently, were jumping up and down on my tonsils with unabased glee), so we're staying home, watching movies. I got like 4 hours of sleep last night, so I am not up for the socializing thing anyways. It's exhausting meeting so many new people. And they're all suprememly friendly and wicked smart and funny and above all cool and so there aren't any I can just sort of write off and not spend energy on. I want to get to know them all! But gradually!

I've met some amazing people the past two days. Mostly, we all sit around in the lecture hall and listen to various deans and profs and speakers as they tell us how glad they are we're here (I don't mind, I'll never get tired of being told 'congratulations'!) and give us advice and intros to the program and other stuff that, more often than not, rolls in one ear and right out the other, pausing only to jump up and down on my guts. My excitement and apprehension continues to mount. I may explode in our first anatomy lab on Friday!

This morning we had our PBL scavenger hunt. PBL=problem based learning. This is small group stuff, and you are given a case each week and have to do your own research on it in order to contribute information to group discussions about the case. We have 2 hours of this, 8 to 10 a few times per week, so it helps to get along with your group members. To that end, we met for the first time today, were given a bunch of clues corresponding to site on campus, had to find those sites and complete the activities set up at each of them in order to collect letters. Upon returning to the life sci center, we unscrambled the letters to make a word (ours? Polypharmacy...multiple drug use) and had to then devise a two minute skit which would convey the word to our audience, without actually saying it. It was really fun, and my legs are killing me from all the running, my hands hurt from the wheelbarrow race, I have oatmeal on my jeans and sticky spots of pudding spattered pretty much everywhere, but now I know all my PBL peeps and we are a pretty rockin' bunch. Hot damn.

Anyways, must end this here. I could go on forever, but as I'm only at day 2 out of god knows how many, I guess I'll save some energy for later.

Linz, I'll be on the Island early Saturday morning! See ya!

Let the Games Begin!

Well, I'm back. Let me just start by saying that Jasper is as unbelievably gorgeous as I remember (the lake, the mountains, the wildlife...I wish I never had to leave), my family is completely crazy (but in a surprisingly good way...I had a lot of fun hanging out with my sisters, although I can't believe how old they all are! Or how into boys...), and strep throat freaking sucks. Two of my six days were spent in mortal agony as viruses waged war along the battlefield of my tonsils. And now, although the pain is mostly gone, and I can swallow without a whole-body flinch, it still feels like I've got a golf-ball wedged in my throat. Yesterday (my bus ride home) was a supremely un-fun day. 12 hours on a bus, unable to swallow, stuck next to a massive person who insisted on taking over most of my seat as well as his (I finally got to move to sit beside Jon in Kamloops), with 4 kinds of drug coursing through my system, none at a high enough dosage to ward off agony...sigh. A whiner is me! Seriously though, I've had strep before, but never this badly. I knocked myself out with a gravol, but I kept waking myself back up attempting to swallow, and every time I woke up, it was to a nice bit of drool (apparently my unconsious mind figured social embarassment was the lesser of those evils). Fortunately, the trip occurred mostly at night, so I doubt many people were too wierded out by me.

Anyways, I can now eat again, and drink! My voice is all fucked to hell, which sucks a lot because I have to meet all my classmates tomorrow, and they're all gonna think I'm wierd. I'll have to write a little explanation on my nametag: Hi, My Name Is: Keltie, and no I'm not ignoring you, talking = pain for me right now...strep throat. Don't worry, it's not catching anymore! (For more info, please turn tag over)...

Bah. I really wish I was well, and could fully appreciate how exciting tomorrow will be. But I'm not, and will likely sleepwalk through most of it. Bother.

I Think My Brain is Melting.

Oh my god, I never posted about the Reel Big Fish concert! (Or maybe I did and am going blind. Either way, and update is needed!)

Oh wow, I can't believe I forgot. Okay, this concert was at the end of July and the Croatian Cultural Center. This venue is little. And there are no chairs. And the soundsystem sucks. And there is no ventilation. And the concert started at 8. And was an all-ages show. And the first band was okay but their sound quality sucked. And the second band just plain sucked and was too loud and I had to go sit in the lobby til they were done. And the third band consisted of a bunch of scary guys from Atlanta who were so cool I felt ashamed to be watching them (who the hell was I kidding, I wasn't no gansta yo). And by the time RBF hit the stage it was about 40 degrees Celcius in that hall and the sweat was flying.

So, did I have a crappy time or what, you ask?

Let me put it this way. If you put this band in an airtight, heated vault, with a set of ten-dollar speakers for a sound-system, an audience of lice-infested monkeys, and an opening act consisting of Hillary Duff and Jennifer Love Hewitt, I would still line up for tickets! Yes, they kicked that much ass.

For starters, for some reason, as soon as the band walked onstage, the sound quality was miraculously improved! (I guess that's what happens when you can pay a professional to do it, rather than having to beg a favour off of one of your friends.) This is a band that knows what's what. They have more energy than I would have believed possible, great charisma, flawless interaction with each other and the audience, and a thorough knowledge of good music. There were no glitches in their nearly two hour long set. They played all the great old songs (Sell Out, She's Famous Now, Everything Sucks, S.R.) most of the equally delicious new ones (Ban the Tube Top, Don't Start a Band, Your Guts (I Hate 'Em)), and even came up with an on-the-spot improv number in their encore (based, fittingly, on the ridiculous temperature of the room...one of the lines is the title of this post) . They even listened to the audience! There was a chanted request to hear Two-For-One, and they obliged willingly! By the time we got out of there, I had sweat pouring off me, but I would gladly have done it all again.

Of course, I got the t-shirt. It's in the style of the Thundercats. Oh god. Too much awesomeness! If it wasn't illegal I would kidnap the entire band and chain them in my basement (if I had one) so that I could hear them again whenever I felt like it.

Um. Not the most eloquent review, but I think it sums my feelings up nicely.

One week of vacation time per year...welcome to the rest of my life!

I am going to Jasper! Soon! Like on Sunday morning! I'm supremely excited. Like Week-Before-Chirstmas excited, only without the shopping! I can almost smell the mountain air already. My only worry is that I'm more than a little out of shape, so hiking and biking will not come easily to me this time around, but I suppose I have noone to blame but myself.

I don't know what the heck Dell is doing with my freaking computer. I can't check my online order status, apparently I have not placed any order with them (according to their dratted website), but I got a confirmation email with my order number and payment details...so I'm confused. If I don't get that thing before the end of August I'll take it as a sign from the powers-that-be that I'd be better off going Mac. Bah! No wonder they can offer such low prices at Dell...they never have to part with any computers!

And another thing (since I'm ranting), I'd like to find and slowly kill those dastardly individuals who are responsible for filling my inbox with spam these past few days. No I don't want Viagra, and thanks, but I have no problem getting anything up, and as for multiple orgasms...don't even get me started. I'm desperately tired of opening my inbox and hearing the gleefully drunk bellow of a certain well-loved cartoon character announcing I have new mail, only to find multiple messages with all-caps-interspersed-with-random-symbols subject lines. Maybe I've been flying under the radar these past few, blissfully spam-free years and their email-address-generators or whatever just now came up with mine. But damn! It's enough to make me want to delete that particular account!

And another thing! Why does gum lose its flavour so fast! I'm going through like two packs per day!

And another thing! Why does my spell-check always tell me that words like flavour and colour are miss-spelled? Gah!

Okay, okay. Jasper. Breathe. Got to remember, I'll be in Jasper soon, away from all this traumatic stuff. One more day of work, one more day of play, and one day of marathon bus-riding and I'll be able to relax and kick back for a whole week!

I wonder how hard it is to compress a whole summer-s worth of vacation into seven days.....

New Toys!

Well, August is upon us, this summer is drawing to a close, and I'm still trying to figure out where the heck it all went! Part of me can't wait for the damned thing to be over so I can get me some learnin'...but the rest (the SANE part) of me is sticking its metaphorical fingers into its ears and singing really loudly--off-key--to drown the first part out. For better or for worse, it's nearly done, and this chapter in my life is coming to a close, and another, bigger, scarier, more exhilerating one is right in front of me. Damn, don't get me started. I'm just trying to convince myself that someday this whole med thing will be just as mundane and comfortable as my undergrad degree proved to be. Myself remains sceptical.

Let's see, what's new. Linz came out this past weekend and we had three days of nearly-solid shopping (broken only by a party, an outing to a Greek restaurant, a watching of the Fab 4, and the necessary sleep). I spent lots of money and got a new mid-weight coat (yay) and 2 x pants and 3 x shirts. Gotta jazz up my wardrobe a bit. All I need now is a haircut and a new pair of big-ass shoes and I'll be ready to present myself to the people in my class. I'm cool! Really! I hardly ever say 'yo' anymore!

Sigh.

In other news, I got my new credit card today, and five minutes after I activated it, I used it to buy a new laptop! Yay! Again! My new baby is a Dell Inspiron 2200 (or something) with a 60 gig harddrive (which was all I cared about...though Jon looked at the processor and scoffed) and a CD burner/DVD rom and 14 inches of screen space. I also got a printer for 30 bucks, for emergencies only, and a wireless mouse, because those touch pads whatchawhosits suck (I personally loved my trackpoint, but Jon scoffed at that too...apparently I have poor taste in computers). I really really wanted to go Mac, but backed away at the last minute because my technological knowhow is very very sad, and I really don't want to find out if Macs are beyond it, that would just crush me. Maybe next time I'll buy Mac.

Preparations are going well. My LOC and student loan are all set up, got my last vaccination today (hep b, my antibodies from grade 6 weren't sufficient). Just need a money order for disability insurance and I'm all good. And a haircut. Can't forget that.

If all goes according to plan I'll be heading to Jasper for the 22-28th of August with Jon to put in some quality time with my family and get a bit of a vaction before my ever-so-rigorous fall semester starts up. I had a long talk with my dad this evening. It's cool to be able to talk to him about my future career. Apparently there are doctors in Duncan who are already offering to let me shadow them (including a very prominant radiologist!). It's neat to be getting a real first glimpse into this facet of my dad's life. And it's nice to know he's been through it all before me, and will be there if I get hung up on something. It may sound surprising, but it's not something I ever thought about much...he left every morning and came back every evening, and damned if I had any idea what went on in between. But I'm gonna learn.

And last, but certainly not least, my good friend Droo and his delightful gal will be in town on Monday/Tuesday next week. Droo, I'd love to hang out! I've got to work on Tuesday, from 1:30 to 9:30, but I'm free Monday (and Tuesday morning). Call me! I'll put my number up as my MSN name. Looking forward to seeing you guys again!

And now, I must mark more MCAT essays. Or maybe watch some more Frasier...hmmm...