First Semester in Review

It's been two months since I've written a post on TBE. I must say, it's been a loooonnnngggg two months. Not a week--no--not a day has gone by that I haven't thought about posting. Countless reasons to post have came and went, but one reason not to post trumped them all: school.

I never imagined medical school would be this hard. My sentiments have been echoed countless times by most of my classmates. Every one of us did well at our undergraduate institution. Some did remarkably well. We all expected to come into medical school and do what we always did--studying and what not--and get the grades.

The first semester was divided into three blocks. Each block was about six weeks long. Block exams then lasted one week. At the end of the semester we had Thanksgiving, then third block exams, and then finals. All in all, I was studying exams for the first two and a half weeks of December.

After finals, I spent the next week before Christmas playing tour guide, translator, and shopper. My father-in-law came in town and spent Christmas with us. It was great, but busy. While my wife worked, I got to drive all over Houston, pointing out interesting sites, translating things into Vietnamese, and trying to find Christmas gifts.

After Christmas, we all (wife, father-in-law, myself) went to San Jose, CA for a wedding. I love California. Now, I'd never want to live in San Francisco, but I was impressed. It was my first time going there, and it was fun, interesting, delicious (the food), and expensive. I'll talk more about that later.

But now I'm back. It's a new year, a new semester, new classes, new experiences, a new blogger (if you have a blogger blog you understand), and new posts. Here's to a great 2006 and a better 2007.