Snow day!

As a third or fourth year medical student, there is no such thing as a "snow day." When grocery stores, offices, schools, and the government are closed, hospitals are always open, and thus essential clinical staff have to make it in come snow, sleet, or ice. Gone are the days of first and second year when we would feel like giddy grade schoolers after getting the text alert saying school's closed the next day. This year, I don't even pay attention to when it's supposed to snow until I get a blast of snow in my face out the front door. I bitterly ignore the "school's closed" texts because most days I'm already in the hospital at 6 am and halfway through rounds. 

Not today. Chalk it up to a combination of being on a chill rotation (psychiatry), having the nicest resident ever, and a forecast to get up to a foot of snow, and I got my first snow day this year! My resident told me to enjoy the days off when I still can though, because in just a short 1.5 years, I'll be the one on call and the one who has to drive in with a foot of snow on the ground (though I'm thankful I don't live in Chicago or Minneapolis or something). 

I spent the entire day just taking my time waking up, eating my breakfast and drinking my coffee, working out, cooking, and eating with neighbors. And even got a little studying done because I find psychiatry. I actually love what I'm learning on this rotation but finding it difficult to take care of the patients because they're literally crazy. And so even though I find the pathophysiology and presentation of schizophrenia, bipolar disease, depression, and various personality/anxiety disorders fascinating (I've never seen such a wide range of human behavior in such a short time), I couldn't go into the field. I do really enjoy this rotation though because it will give us a good foundation for seeing these patients in a medical setting (apparently 20% of all visits to a PCP are for psychiatric complaints)--and then refer them to our psych colleagues. 

Here's last month's parade of Things I Ate. Went out to a hip new restaurant with my girls (Fork and Wrench in Canton) where we saw Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (filming Veep in Baltimore; apparently the cast of House of Cards visits the restaurant all the time too), but I thought it was a bit overrated, like many other "new American" restaurants. I prefer Woodberry for hipster food when I'm feeling decadent. 

 Bone marrow and animal crackers for starters (also had an escargot bun, not pictured. I think I'll take my bao zi with pork in it again next time, thanks)

 Steak Frites 

Proof we actually get out in third year!

C's family was kind enough to invite us over for Chinese New Year! CNY = friends, family, and lots and lots of dumplings. 

 

 And at this party, green tea macarons! Macarons are notoriously difficult to make and C's sister E is a macaron making monster. Don't they look store bought? I'm obsessed -- I've already commissioned her to make a macaroon cake for my (who knows when) wedding. 

 Mani's and macarons with the roomie. Once again, her sis' Earl Grey tea and rose water macarons. 

My college friends recently moved back to Baltimore and invited me over to their adorable apartment for some tea and scones <3 

 Bacon milkshake @ Paper Moon Diner. Had to try it. 

 Fancy schmancy drinks at the 13th floor of the Belvedere

 Current accessories

 My roommate's sister's handiwork again. Mango/raspberry cake for Vday. 

Snow day potluck! Chicken satay pasta and cauliflower crust pizza. 

Tomorrow's Valentine's day and I have some fun plans with friends this whole weekend. I'll be sharing some recipes next since I've had so much more time to cook lately! Trying to pack as much into this month as possible before I start SURGERY (my worst fear) next month. 

New Year's Resolutions 2014

I can't believe it's been a full year since my last New Year's resolution post and hence over a year since I've been blogging regularly (hey, somewhat).  It's ironic I started this blog during the dark days of second year of med school (third year is so much better), but it's also helped because it helped me chronicle and remember the fun times I had during that period too.

How did I do on my New Year's resolutions for last year? I think I posted a lot more consistently and a lot more photo stories of the more-than-usual trips (Honolulu, Montreal, New York, Beijing) that I took last year, so I did build my blog more. I tried to keep up with current events more, especially at the beginning of the year, but didn't do so well at the end. And I definitely did NOT phase Facebook out, so there's that. Yeah...

I'm pretty much convinced that New Year's resolutions are a load of bullocks and that the vast majority of people don't achieve them (including me). However, they do offer a good opportunity for introspection on what you think you need to change and improve about yourself. So without further ado, my resolutions for 2014:

1. Dream Bigger - As mentioned before, med school and specifically second year was rough. So rough insofar that I lost a lot of my ambition and drive that I had going into med school to excel. After not doing so stellar on my first couple of tests, I was satisfied to get around the class mean and I resigned myself to the fact that I would just be average. Now that I'm halfway through third year, I feel myself regaining a lot of the confidence I had as I find my knowledge improving my leaps and bounds every rotation. I'm not cowering in the corner during rounds, afraid that the attending will ask me a question, because I know how rounds work, what lab values mean, and what clinical findings are important. As I'm becoming more comfortable with a doctor's role in how the hospital works, I want to set my goals higher and dream bigger this year. I want to travel somewhere far for residency, ideally the Bay Area or anywhere in California, but anywhere on the west coast like Portland or Seattle would be fine, just for a change of scenery and culture. So many of my friends have made the move and don't want to come back. Since I will likely pursue a fellowship, residency will be a good chance to go away for 3 years and then eventually come back to the DC area if I can tear myself away from California. I had a period where I would have been satisfied to stay in DC or even Baltimore for residency just because it would have been "easy," but now's a good time to refocus my plans and resolve to make the big move!

2. Take control of my finances - I've already started doing this by tracking all of my bank accounts on Mint sometime in the spring last year, but now I check Mint much more often than my actual bank accounts. Mint makes it easy to categorize your purchases under the Transactions tab and then see how much you spent on a certain category in a certain period under the Trends tab. It makes it easy to track spending trends throughout the years and to figure out what categories you need to cut back on or expand. My goals for this year are to apply to a new credit card in order to take advantage of the reward miles in preparation for interview season THIS fall (!!) and to learn some basic investing. I gave my dad some money to invest for me after high school and just asked for control of the account so I can learn some stock market basics. I completely forgot that I still had that pot of money, so I'm not going to take it super seriously as if all of my savings depend on it (it doesn't) and instead just try to have some fun with investing!

That's it. Only two and I'm already doing most of the second one. But the first one is a biggie, so I think that'll be more than enough to keep me busy for 2014. Let's see how I do!.

Instagram winter break

Ok technically these weren't all taken during winter break of third year, but they didn't fit nicely into other posts. Here's my winter iPhone photo dump: 

 The roof of Mercy hospital, one of our (fancy schmancy) affiliate hospitals, where I did the second month of my Internal Medicine rotation. The rooftop garden looks out onto downtown Baltimore!

 My classmate K and I on the rooftop during the year's first snow! Our resident took us out to play in the snow and then let us go at 11 am. 

 Mercy Med A was the best!

 Lights on 34th street, an annual tradition in Bmore. 

 I went to Taco Bar, an authentic Mexican place located in a gas station in my hometown (#1 on yelp!), no less than three times over winter break. 

 First meal back with the parents

 Christmas eve selfie

 Christmas eve outfit

 JJ's first attempt at apple pie

 Unwrapping presents on Christmas eve

 J's grown up holiday playdate in DC

Remus is trying to sneak a bite

 The infamous "birth juice"

 Bffls!

 The perfect Xmas present

 My mini cheesecakes for the annual NYE party

 The day MoCo closed schools one day after New Year's

 The most accessories I've ever worn

Bistrot du Coin for Jeff's 25th bday!