New Years Resolutions

I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Years! This year, I spent New Years in the Bay Area. My night started with a trip to the ice-skating rink, something I haven't done in many many years. I then went to a dinner at Beni-Hanas for dinner (a tradition that was started last New Years). Finally, S and I decided to go into the city to watch the midnight firework show on Pier 14 in San Fransisco. It was such a nice way to start the year!

Like last year, I wanted to develop a solid set of new years resolutions that I could look back on them each month to make sure I make some progress. So, here we go....

Resolution #1 [Health]: Continue to work on my exercise plan and diet. 
I realize this is the most common resolution made each new years, but nonetheless, I still think it is a great idea for everyone to consciously start out the year with the goal of improving their diet and improving their exercising. Some ways I plan on doing this is to schedule different exercise classes, Yoga classes, or hours to Lap Swim in my schedule each week. I also will be going to my apartment gym other nights that I do not have the time to attend these other options. Finally, I am bringing a cookbook with me to school, in hopes that I wont get bored of cooking the same things and will actually cook nightly, instead of buying food that is bad for me.

Resolution #2 [School Goal #1]: Improve semester average and Master each course! 
I was very happy with how I performed academically throughout my first semester. My semester average ended up being at around a 87%, but I know my coursework gets harder next semester. Instead of having one or two exams each week, next semester I have two or three a week. So, I am going to need to keep on top of it better than I did last semester. More than simply improving my semester average, I want to continue keeping above a 85% (or a "mastery") in each of my classes. I know I can do it!

Resolution #3 [School Goal #2]: Participate a valuable externship or research experience.
There are so many amazing summer opportunities around the country for first year medical students. These experiences can be externships that allow you to shadow in different departments in a hospital or conduct research in hundreds of different fields with some of the most well-known and well-respected researchers in the country. So, I want to make sure that I take advantage of some of these opportunities. I also am entertaining the idea of participating in research during the school year, but I wont decide if this is possible or logical for me to do until I figure out how the semester's course load is for me.

Resolution #4 [Relationship]: Continue to work on the balance between school and my relationship. 
While school is in session, basically all of my "free" time is spent studying. In other words, I really don't have free time...ever. So, being in a relationship with someone who is equally as busy is obviously hard to balance. Last semester, I feel like we did a pretty good job seeing each other almost every weekend. However, most of the time we were together, we spent studying. So, this years goal is to try to take a break and go on dates, go explore Michigan more, and just be with each other. It sounds easy, but this honestly is probably the hardest of my resolutions. For any of my fellow-medical student readers, you all know this feeling of feeling guilty when you aren't with your books. So, by taking off time to "hang out" seems pretty difficult.

Resolution #5 [Friends]: Contact friends from the past. 
I think I do an okay job with maintaining friendships from the past, but I definitely want to work on improving this year. I go weeks (or even months) without talking to some of my best friends from high school and college. I know everyone is busy, but it doesn't take long to send a quick text or make a quick call. Moreover, for those relationships that I have somewhat let go, I want to re-contact those friends from the past. Specifically, some friends from high school that I have lost contact with and basically all of my friends from abroad. Its so hard to maintain all of my friendship relationships from all the aspects of my life, but I want to improve this over the next 12 months!

Resolution #6 [Self #1]: Travel to a New Place. 
Yes, I am reusing a resolution from last year, but I love to travel and will probably have this resolution every year until I die. I would obviously love to travel out of the United States (specifically to somewhere in Africa or to Thailand), but I am happy to go where ever life takes me...as long as its somewhere new!


Resolution #7 [Self #2] Learn a New Skill. 
I realize this is broad, but I don't care. I want to learn something new! Maybe to cook, maybe to draw, maybe to play the piano. I don't care, but I want to learn something and I want to learn it well! :)

So, thats all for now. I probably will come up with some new goal mid-way through the year, but 7 resolutions is enough for me right now!

Happy New Year everyone! :)

Christmas Baking

Like I have mentioned before, one of my favorite hobbies is baking. So, you can bet that I have been a busy bee over the last few days cooking a ton of delicious Christmas baked goods. Here are some of the items that I have made:

Peanut Butter Blossom, Chocolate Chip, and Gingerbread Cookies

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins with Lemon Glaze and Sliced Almonds

Pineapple Upside Down Mini-cakes

Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Treats (I still need to drizzle chocolate on top!)

Santa Hat Brownie!

 

Raindeer Brownie!

Christmas Mouse!

Peanut Butter Chocolates AND Turtle Candies

Star Cookies

Snow Man Cookie w/ Home made frosting that I made from scratch!!!!



Besides all of these yummy treats, we also made English Toffee, Kahluah Cheese Cake, and Carrot Cake! Yummmmm

Disney World Vacation

I havent blogged in quite some time because I have been so busy with finals and with my december vacation to Florida! After thanksgiving, we had 6 exams, 4 lab quizzes, and several assignments to complete before the semester was over. So, I was a busy bee! Instead of boring you all with the details of studying and finals week, I will just tell all of you in the blog world that I ended the semester pretty well, with an overall average of just about an 87%. So, I am very happy with my first semester performance.

What I think is more fun to talk about in this blog post is my trip to Disney World!!! S and I have been planning this trip for quite some time and I can't believe it finally came and went. We left from Flint at noon on Friday, had a connecting flight in Atlanta, and finally arrived in Florida at around 7 PM (our layover was crazy long!). We stayed at the All Stars Movies resort for 4 nights and got to visit 3 of the 4 parks: Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and The Magic Kingdom!  I haven't been to Disney World since I was 10 years old and S had never been there, so it was really fun to explore the parks together! :)

Here are some highlights of the trip and some fun character pictures:

S and I never get to spend time together other than little weekend visits where we are both studying the whole time, so it was so great to have this time alone together. It was the perfect way to start the holiday season and a fabulous end to a wonderful year! Happy Holidays everyone! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for this year. This time last year, I was back at home, working three jobs, and did not know whether or not I would be accepted into medical school. I was enjoying my year off, but I had so much uncertainty. It is crazy how much has changed for me since then. I have moved across the country, I have committed to my career path of becoming a physician, and I have met the most amazing people in the world (my CHM family). It is easy to go day to do without reflecting on all that you have, but I can honestly say that I am truly grateful and feel so fortunate for how my life is going and how many amazing people that I have gotten to know within the last year. 

As for our Thanksgiving festivities, S and I just finished eating our delicious Thanksgiving feast and now he is zonked out, so I thought there was no better time to blog! 

This years menu: 

• Scalloped Potatoes
• Green Beans
• Stuffing
• Chicken (the grocery store was out of turkey/we were too lazy)
• Mac&Cheese (S wanted it because it is Chandler's favorite Thanksgiving food apartently haha)
• Crescent Roles
• Sparkling Cider
• Pumpkin Bread
• Cheese Cake

Now all I have left to do is....the dishes...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Easter!

Never too old to color Easter Eggs! :)