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| Minkus Minks!
Each class at my med school is divided up into 4 colleges (a la Harry Potter except that colleges are not linked between different years). The purpose is, of course, to make medical school a little less intimidating for us. My college is Minkus College, named after the doctor who is our mentor.
Dr. Minkus (center) with two of my friends and their significant others (husband and fiance).
Last Saturday, we had our first Minkus Social Committee sponsored event: a potluck at Club 44 (just a cool name for a nice room) at the John Hancock building.
Everyone eagerly looked down at Michigan Avenue....
 Because the lighting ceremony was going on! Every year, Chicago lights up the Magnificent Mile (best brand-name shopping around -- rivals 5th Avenue in NYC) and has a parade to celebrate it.
The view was not the only thing that was worth looking at. Besides amazing (and I mean amazing as in chocolate-dipped strawberries, chicken curry, lasagna, chicken pot pie, sushi, cheesecake, and hummus amazing) food, we also had....
An amazing performance by Ray Hah, who won Northwestern's Idol contest a year ago. He is hands-down the most talented musician I know. Check out his music at http://www.purevolume.com/rayhah
Seriously, click on the link now. :)
And you'll love Ray as much as I do. I listen to his music everyday.
There's one more person I want to introduce: Ms. Jemma Ji Yeon Kang, my future roomate (left)! I'll be moving into Jemma's gorgeous apartment pretty soon (Dec/Jan). Katrina is also in the picture -- she's also a friend.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I'm going home with another classmate, Daliyah. It'll be 50 Cambodian people and me! I'm looking forward to it. :)
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| I had real chaat today for the first time since leaving Vik's behind in Berkeley.
Yum.
This was after I worked for the first time at Devon Clinic, a free
clinic catering to the South Asian community. The attending
(physician in charge) was hilarious but disturbing at the same
time. Case in point: he turns to me in front of the patient and
says "Oh, [the patient] must be a smoker. You see, they sometimes
don't know when they smoke -- or they don't want to tell you." I
glanced uncomfortably at the patient. Yup, he looked
indignant. The doctor turns to him and dismisses him, "Oh, I'm
just saying these things to teach. You know, just saying!"
So this is why they make us go through communications class.
On an unrelated note, I picked up cumin, tumeric, and curry powder today. Here's to learning to make Indian food! :)
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| Today, it snowed for the first time since I've been in Chicago.
As I walked out of lecture, small white flurries whirled into the faces of my classmates and I.
They were excited, "Look, the first snow!"
I despaired. Here's the beginning of 4 months of sun-setting-at-3pm, too-cold-to-walk-outside gloom.
I know, I whine. But I'm from California. Oh, I miss it now.
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| Boat Formal -- 10/15/05 "Proms of the Past"
This awesome girl is Krissy, the girl who first came up with the idea
of a boat formal along with Jon. She put SO much work into this
event with me -- I love her! Plus isn't she gorgeous?!
And this is Jake, who is one of my best friends here. His 17th
century admiral costume won our "Best Dressed" contest! For the
Jeddies, he's a "kindred spirit"! Every girl needs one of these
amazing guys!
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| An excerpt from an e-mail that I wrote to my mentor from the bay area:
Now, time for a little update: I've been elected as a senator in my
class. This means that I'm one of 20 students government
officials for the whole med school. Life is SO busy because of
this -- I feel like I've all of a sudden joined every single student
group at our school.
I planned a boat formal for our first-year class, and 175 people
attended. It was a beautiful night out on Lake Michigan and we
danced under the stars while cruising by the Chicago lakeshore.
I'm also on the Academic Affairs Committee, so I oversee the curriculum
review for Northwestern's first-year classes. This has involved
heading up course review committees for each of our courses and
aggregating feedback to convey to the faculty.
I'm now also working on a Med/Law/Business earthquake relief dinner
to benefit the victims of the tragedy in Pakistan. I think that
as medical students, it's so easy to disconnect ourselves from the rest
of the world. It's important to stay abreast of international
happenings and not lose sight of what we got into all of this for:
people.
We started anatomy 2 weeks ago, and I must say that it has been a
life-changing experience. The miracle of the human body never
ceases to amaze me. I wish, however, that there were more
sensitivity in lab. Because we don't have an initiation ceremony
to anatomy, I feel that students are sometimes desensitized to the fact
that we are learning from real people -- they had families, hobbies,
and lives once. We uncover the bodies one section at a time,
slowing lifting the black garbage bag shrouds back from the hardened
skin. It's easy, almost convenient, to forget that my cadaver is
a man, not just a bag of bones and skin and connective tissue glued
together with embalming fluid. But everytime that I'm tempted to
do that, I just think: he was 89 years old when he died. And he
becomes a man again. Not only a man, but a friend. And I am
ever so grateful to him for giving his body so that I can become a
better physician.
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