Spring Break Part 1

One month ago, I lived out my LAST Spring Break...EVER!  And boy, did I do it right! In just 9 days of Spring Break, I went to Detroit to celebrate one of my med school BFFs bachelorette party, flew to LA/OC for a few days with the boyfriend, flew home for a day with my parents, and then drove up to Santa Cruz to celebrate of my high school BFF's bachelorette parties! Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds.

Part 1: Michelle's Bachelorette party

For Michelle's last fling before the ring, we headed to Detroit! We met up at our hotel room at Greek Town (this huge and amazing hotel/casino in the heart of downtown Detroit). Her maid of honor made adorable Disney-themed T-shirts for all of M's bridal party. We hung out in the room for a while, playing bachelorette party games, drinking yummy drinks and giving M bachelorette presents. After a bit, we head out for some pizza an drinks at M's favorite Detroit hotspot, the Old Shillelagh! Later, we ventured to a nightclub in the MGM hotel where Brody Jenner was DJ-ing. Lastly, we ended the night by going back on the town, eating some Fried Cheese at a little restaurant called Pegasus, and then headed back to our hotel room! It was such a fun night and I loved being able to celebrate my beautiful friend's last fling as a single lady! 

Photo we sent M's fiance (sadly, he
didn't fall for our joke)

Casino games

Night club: can you spot Brody Jenner?

Part 2: The OC

After our fabulous night in Detroit, I headed back to the OC to hang out with S for a few days. Since S dint have any days off, I had a lot of time to sit by the pool and read. It. was. perfect. In the 3 days that I was hanging around in Orange, I read 2.5 books (Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, and Bad Science). In addition to my many hours of laying by the pool and reading, S and I went out on the town by heading to Westwood (our old UCLA home) to eat at the restaurant of our first date, had ice cream at Diddy Reise and drive around our old neighborhood! It was so fun and made me miss Westwood like crazy! We also had time to go to Seal Beach and eat the world's best Mexican food.

Second Year Complete!!

I officially finished my second year of medical school yesterday! We had out last domain exam (Digestive/GI) from 8-10, which was actually really difficult...so we all waited anxiously for our exam results to be released at noon to make sure we passed. When 12 PM hit, I finally got to celebrate...I had passed the exam and was officially done with my pre-clinical coursework!

To celebrate, my friend Michelle and I went to the beach in Sleepy Hollow State Park! It was so amazing to have a completely free afternoon to lay out in the sun, have a few drinks (spiked 7/11 slurpies...yummm), and play with M's new pup Kuma!

Kuma

Spiked Slurpies

Beach Day

After playing at the park/beach for a few hours, we headed back to East Lansing and started to celebrate with our whole class...it has been so long since I have gone out to a bar in E.L, especially with most of my classmates. It was a great night and I'm so happy everyone came out to celebrate!

Couldn't have made it through the first 2 years without these girls! 

Story: This bar has all the tiles in the bathroom
covered with gravity...I did this one on my first night out in EL
and I found it when I went to the bar last night!

Today was my first day of ISP (intensive study period) for Step 1! Although I didn't do much intensive studying (only 3 hours of QBANK today), it still was a very productive day. I woke up late (11:30) with a pretty bad headache thanks to high doses of acetylaldehyde, but luckily that didn't last long. When I finally got up, I caught up on a few TV shows, picked up S's cap/gown for his upcoming graduation, signed my lease for next year, planned my ISP study schedule, went to my go-to study spot (Grand Traverse Pie Company) to study for 3 hours, went to the gym and am now finally catching up on blogging! It feels so great to have a day to do normal people stuff, because usually about 14 hours of my day is spent on school/studying.

Tomorrow, I'm going to really buckle down and put in my first 12 hour study day of ISP! I'm actually kind of excited to get started...wish me luck!

Bubbles, Baths, and Books

As a teenager, I never understood why people would read for fun. Although I have always been a good student, reading books that were outside my required reading in school never appealed to me. Over the last few years, however, my thoughts on this have completely changed. In college, I really began to appreciate how many great books there are and how enjoyable laying in bed with a good book can be. Unfortunately, I had very little free time at UCLA and, as a result, this new found thrill for reading was pushed aside. So, one of my goals for my year off of school was to read as many books as I could. 

One thing that has really helped me dig into all of these great books is my (also new found) love for bubble baths. My parents have a jet-spa style bath tub and I have found that NOTHING is more relaxing after a long day at work than a hot bath, bubbles, and a great book. Simply the best.

Anyways, I have created a "summer reading list" in my head, but thought it would be great if I could jot it down to make sure I remember all of the books I have completed and all of the books I still must pick up.

So far this summer (since April), I have read the following books:

-"A Walk To Remember"-Nicholas Sparks

-"The Pact"-Jodi Piccoult

-"The Rescue"-Nicholas Sparks

-"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"- J.K. Rowling

-"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"- J.K. Rowling

-"Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban"- J.K. Rowling

-"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"- J.K. Rowling

-"Eat, Pray, Love"-Elizabeth Gilbert

I am currently reading: 

-"The Lovely Bones"-Alice Sebold

Still on my summer reading list:

-"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"-J.K. Rowling

-"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"- J.K. Rowling

-"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows"- J.K. Rowling

-"19 Minutes"-Jodi Piccoult

-"Keeping Faith"-Jodi Piccoult

-"In Stitches"-Anthody Youn, M.D.

-"House of God"-Samuel Shm

If anyone else has any good suggestions, let me know! I have to read as much as I possibly can before I start school, because then I will unfortunately be back at a point where I will have to push this new-found love of books aside.