Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving: A day for many Americans that is about visiting with family and stuffing yourself full with as much food as you can possibly force into your stomach. The last three years, I have been spent in Michigan with S. This means that I have had to learn how to cook Thanksgiving dinner without the help of my parents, who have much more experience cooking a huge Thanksgiving feast than I am. Well, this year...I think I have perfected my Thanksgiving dinner meal!

The menu this year:
-Chicken breast (sadly, the grocery store was out of turkey and rotisserie chicken)
-Rice boiled in chicken broth
-Stuffing
-Scalloped Potatoes
-Garlic Crescent Rolls
-Green Beans w/ Bacon and Almonds
-White Wine
-Strawberry cheesecake

It was a really fun/relaxing dinner and Thanksgiving Holiday!

S and I went shopping for our Thanksgiving feast
on Wednesday night. 

Thanksgiving morning tradition:
Baking Orange Cinnamon Rolls for Breakfast! 

While I baked, S continued to sleep.... 

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! 

:) 

Starting to cook! 

My amazing green beens! 

All of our yummy food

S doing dishes. Thanks love!  

Giving Thanks...

Today, was my third year celebrating Thanksgiving in East Lansing, Michigan. Thinking about how much I have accomplished and where my life has taken me even in these last 3 years gives me so much to be thankful for. So here are my top 10 things I am thankful for this year:

1) Family: Even though I don't get to see my parents as much as I would like to, I am so lucky and thankful for a mother that I can call at any moment, that I know would be willing to talk me through a problem, calm me down from school meltdowns, or simply talk to about the weather. I got so lucky to have the parents that I do and (although I don't always express it) am thankful for them everyday.

2) Sarath: This January, we will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary. Over these last 5 years, we have survived and grown together through many challenges that other couples never will have to face. From me leaving to study abroad across the world in Europe for 6 months, from S moving away across the country to Michigan for 2 years, and from simply having a relationship built of 2 medical students that have 0 free time, I am especially thankful that we have used all of these challenges to grow together and develop a relationship that is full of love. He encourages me everyday, he puts up with my med school meltdowns, he makes me laugh, and he makes me feel like I can accomplish anything I could ever set my mind to. So, today, and everyday, I am thankful for my wonderfully amazing boyfriend.

3) Friends: This is a huge category, because I have been so lucky in my life to be surrounded by such amazing people. Today, I am especially thankful for the friends I have had since high school, for the friends I made at UCLA, to the friends I have made studying abroad, and my medical school friends that have made Michigan feel like home. Even if I do not talk to you everyday or haven't talked to you in a year, I am thankful for the many wonderful people in my life that I consider to be my friend.

4) School: I am so thankful to have the privilege of having graduated from a great undergraduate university and for currently studying in medical school. I know there are many people in this world that have all of the capabilities of earning college and graduate degrees that never have the opportunity, I feel so fortunate that I have never had to worry about having access to education.

5) Home: I am thankful to have two homes: one in California where my parents live and one in Michigan that I have developed. I am thankful that I feel like Michigan is my second home after such a short period of time living here.

6) Travel: I have been so lucky with all of the places that I have fortunately had the opportunity to travel to. In the last 5 years, I have traveled all across the United States on a road trip with my parents and on a road trip down south with some med school friends and to Mexico a few times during college. I have traveled to Europe (Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Scotland, England, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, and France). I have traveled to Central America twice (Honduras) and South America (Peru). I know that I have seen more of the world than most people and even though I have a lot more traveling to do in my life, I am so thankful for every opportunity I do get to go to a new place.

7) Food: I am thankful to be able to afford food everyday. I am also thankful that I have developed a liking of cooking and have the ability to make yummy Thanksgiving dinners for the last few years.

8) Warmth: This one might sound silly, but I love being warm. So, I am thankful to have an apartment that I can afford and warm blankets that I can curl up with on a warm night. Its easy to forget these simple conveniences, but there are many people in this world who do not have these luxuries.

9) Success: I am thankful that I am two years in to my medical education and I am almost at a point in my life where I will consider myself "successful." I know this word has many definitions, but for me, I am proud to say that I will be a doctor by age 26. :)

10) Blogging: I am thankful for my blogger friends that originally inspired me to start a blog. I think it will be a great gift to be able to look back on all of these posts after a few years and have all of my time of medical school journaled.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Hem/Onc

Welp! I haven't blogged in a WHOLE MONTH, because I have just survived the hardest domain of my second year curriculum- Hematology/Oncology. I was warned about this class from 4th and 3rd years basically since I entered medical school...so I was prepared to put myself in hibernation and learn the heck out of the subject for the month.

After many long hours sitting in our underground silent cubicle study area, referred to from students as the "nerd cave", after gaining about 10 lbs because there was no time to exercise/grocery shop/cook healthy, and after many nights of under-sleep, Monday morning was FINALLY here and it was finally the moment of truth -- exam time. Our exam started at 7:30, which meant doors opened at 7 AM...wayyyyy too early to think critically, but hey, there was not really any other option! The exam was 120 questions, which was also a challenge. This was the longest exam we have had up to date. The second longest exam thus far was only 90 questions, so this also was an added stress of this exam. Nonetheless, by 9:00 AM, I had finished the 120 questions, double-checked a few unsure answers and fearfully hit "submit". I then collected my belongings and left. From calculating the number of questions I knew I had definitely gotten correct, I was fairly confident that I had at least passed the exam (a 75%), but wanted the official grade report just to make sure.

The official grades arrive every exam day at 12:00 noon...This is directly after our first PBL group of our next domain. So, usually my fellow students are fairly brain-dead from a morning exam and constantly re-freshing their emails until grade reports are sent out. This was definitely the case for me during this particular Monday.

So, when 11:55 arrived and my last re-fresh of my inbox finally showed an update, I fearfully opened up my grade report and let out a huge sigh of relief. Not only did I pass, but I did pretty well! What a relief.

After getting our grade reports back, it was time to celebrate. For lunch, a group of us went to an Indian restaurant for a delicious lunch buffet. Michelle, Caela and I then (finally) went to watch the last Twilight! [side note: I have been to almost all of the Twilight midnight premiers, so I was pretty sad that I had to miss the last premier to study Hem/Onc...finally getting to see this movie was the BEST post-exam gift.] After the movie, we went to forever 21 to costume shop for 90s costumes. Our class was having a 90s-themed post-exam party that night and the G-Phi in me (who LOVEEEESS costume parties) was all about finding the perfect costume. Caela and I decided that we were going to buy matching outfits and be Tia & Tamara Mawry from Sister-Sister!

Roomie love. 

Now that I'm done with Hem-Onc, I feel much more confident about myself in medical school. This was always one of the big humps that I never thought I would overcome, and now that I have....I'm even more excited about the rest of the year. We will see how long this lasts as boards approach haha.