Week 1 = Survival

Well, Monday began it all, full speed ahead. Do not pass go and DEFINITELY do not collect $200. Here at Columbia we have 3 courses in our first year:

1) Molecular Mechanisms of Health and Disease: this is our "biology" course. It encompasses, cell bio, molecular bio, biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology, physiology, histology and just about every other "ology" you can think of... It hasn't been TOO bad so far, because much of it is review for a biology major such as myself, but I have to be careful not to get too comfortable and realize that new things are coming, and quickly.

2) Foundations of Clinical Medicine: this is our "soft" course. We talk about our feelings, read popular medical literature (ex. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down), learn medical ethics, and talk about our feelings some more. We even get a diary... er journal to reflect in. In all seriousness, FCM is a nice way to comprehend what it is we're all slaving away at... The first lecture, we met a patient and heard her story of life-long treatment for sickle cell disease, the good and the bad. The first small group, we wrote for a few minutes on what our first anatomy lesson was like, or other things from the first week that were tough. It is also nice because FCM falls on Wednesday and provides a nice pause from the grind so we can all try to catch up. The clerkships I mentioned in a previous post are also a part of this course. As I said, my clerkship is with a nephrologist named Leonard Stern. He is very nice and has a hugely varied practice. He has 4 different offices and invited Valerie (another girl doing the clerkship) and I to join him on any day at any office. One is even down near to FAO Schwartz! Conveniently, one of his offices is just off the lobby to my dorm building! I think I'm going to try each location out! (The two others are a hospital and inpatient location.)

3) Gross Anatomy: this is, so far, my most challenging course. It is the one I discussed before, where Team Richard (<-- my anatomy table) and I battle through the emotional, physical and mental obstacle course that is anatomy. As Dr. Stern said, it really is learning a new language, "medicalese" he calls it, but it gets easier each day I use it. Repetition really is the only way to get it, but slowly I feel more and more comfortable using anatomical terminology. I spent a day with my friend Sam from Yale and she couldn't believe that I had only had two anatomy classes. She said she already couldn't understand a word I said -- that I was speaking a different language! Yay Medicalese! Gross Anatomy consists of dissections in lab, where professors and clinicians are there to help and also show us clinical procedures. So far we've seen a cricothyrotomy (emergency airway) and a tube thoracostomy (chest tube insertion)!  We also have super overwhelming lectures that are only understood the 3rd time through (luckily all lectures are video recorded), non-dissecting sessions where we look at bones and learn about bony features such as Epicondyles, and clinical correlation lectures where we learn about surgeries and specialties, so far radiology and breast surgery. To add to the load, each dissection group only does half of the dissections for the course and must go in with members from the other group sharing your cadaver  to learn what dissection they did!

Though it is only three courses, we all feel totally behind! The "all" part of that sentence is keeping me sane, as is a pass/fail grading system! Luckily, the people here are great! For example, my dissection group needed a "guide book" or a dissector, so I bought one of a second year. To repay me, I've so far gotten 3 coronas, $8, and the promise of 3 orders of french fries -- grossly to reflect how greasy our dissector is. I KNOW! I'M SORRY! I'M totally grossing you out! :)

Outside of class, last week was another busy week of opening days events. We had a "big sib/little sib" even where we met the second years we've been assigned to annoy all year. Mine's name is Maile (read: Miley) and has already had to tell me to relax at least once! Oh well! After a quick stop at the farmer's market, we had the P&S Club Fair on Tuesday, which was JUST like the Activities Bazaar at Yale, complete with the A Capella group asking everyone if they sang (inside joke for you Yalies). It was fun to see that Penis... er P&S has so many student groups, including beer tasting, wine tasting, theater, poetry, dance, singing, volunteering, rugby, etc. I put my name on a few lists, but am trying not to over-commit. Wednesday I realized how much I love FCM Wednesdays, and received my first batch of groceries from FreshDirect! Yummy produce!

Thursday marked the first meeting of the Society of Bacchus (sorry no link...), which is Columbia's wine tasting society. Our professor, Michael Gershon, led the lecture on 3 types of wine -- a total of 6 glasses, and the party then moved down to The Gin Mill where they had half priced drinks with a Columbia ID. Needless to say, we all needed the chance to let loose a bit. It was great fun, and I plan to make Bacchus one of my activities for the year.

Friday morning's lecture was given by Dr. Gershon as well, and he wasn't the slightest bit surprised to see half the class missing at 8:30am. Though I was there, I sure was glad that it was mostly review! The course director kindly advised Dr. Gershon to save the wine tastings for the weekends. : ) I learned about the Student Government at noon-time and spent the afternoon (after non-dissecting session) meeting with Dr. Stern about the logistics of the clerkship. I then auditioned for the Ultrasounds a capella group. I ended up getting "deferred" to second semester due to an abundance of sopranos both in my class and the second year class, who will be quitting at semester.  I hope to be able to do this second semester. In the mean time, the Bard Hall Players are doing "Crazy For You", a Gershwin musical this fall, so I plan to audition for that this coming week. Friday night ended with us all getting kicked off the roof deck of the 12th floor (who knew you needed a permit to be out there at night?), me "icing" the birthday boy, my friend Travis, and then to Coogan's, the local Irish Pub.

Saturday morning passed by unnoticed by most of Bard Hall, and I awoke in the afternoon to walk to the grocery store and buy some ingredients. I had received a BUSH of basil from FreshDirect and planned to make pesto to put in the freezer. It was slow going until I found that my friend Nick had an amazing Cuisinart tool which worked as an immersion blender, but more importantly a food processor! It was a life-saver and I paid him back in pesto, which was DELICIOUS! I then used my Griddler to make eggs and toast and then headed downtown to see my Yale friend, Sam, who had just returned from Haiti. She was visiting NYC with her boyfriend for a birthday party before her semester at the School of Public Health really begins. We had lemonade in Bryant Park and then walked to Rosa Mexicana for dinner. We mosied down 5th Avenue, shopping at Fossil and lusting after the live Abercrombie & Fitch window models. We even ventured into Banana Republic where I found a $60 shirt for $16!!! YAY! Finally we met up with Sam's friend a posh lounge called Cibar. They had my favorite drink, the French 75. Too bad it was $16 each! After a drink and an ice water, the group headed toward Union Square to find a club. I, unfortunately, had to get all the way back to Washington heights, so I ducked down to the L train across to the A. Unfortunately, at night these trains run infrequently so I waited for each for about half an hour. Luckily, however, 5 guys from P&S hopped onto my subway car at the Port Authority and I had someone to talk to. After leaving around 1:15am, I still didn't get home until close to 2:45 or 3!

I slept in Sunday and spent the day studying. I visited a friend's apartment in the evening, but turned in pretty early. Today was spent studying as well. I can now tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the brachial plexus, which I assume is NOTHING! : )

Tomorrow begins another week, albiet short, and new adventures.

Miss you all!

Hayley

My Clerkship Mentor

Hey all!
One of the opportunities we have as a first year is called a Clerkship, which is basically glorified shadowing. We get credit for doing this! YAY!

My clerkship advisor is a Nephrologist:

http://www.columbianephrology.org/Stern.htm

I'll let you know how it goes!

Hayley

"it's like the pope of your torso!"

Just a fun link of my professor from yesterday morning on Colbert...


http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/88460/june-11-2007/michael-gershon

enjoy!

Hayley

Orientation Week COMPLETED!

And so it begins...

It's weird to think that my goals for essentially my entire life are finally being realized. I have completed high school (more unsure for me than some others), completed college (an exciting challenge), and completed the application process for medical school! Contrary to what many expected, I chose to attend  Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. I was attracted by the students I met who were passionate about many things, especially outside their interest in medicine. There is a vibrant extracurricular life here filled with a cappella, theater, comedy, writing, art, music and more! (Who gives a f*ck about an Oxford comma?)

This recent journey started out with a long drive back out to the east coast with ALL the stuff I had just driven to La Crosse after Yale's graduation! Silly, I know... After loading up the van so that it was bursting at the seams, Dad sent Mom and me off for a 3-day driving adventure. I-80 feels like home after having driven along it so many times. We even have our favorite restaurants, hotels and rest stops along the way! (See Ambrosia Lounge)

I spent last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday moving into my 10x13 dorm room of Bard Hall. It is bigger than I expected, but I half wonder if I will be living with communal bathrooms for the rest of my life... There's only one kitchen for an 11-story building, so I got a refrigerator, George Foreman-esque grill, microwave and hot water heater. Plus I have a sink in my room which is super convenient. So far, they have been feeding us, so I haven't had to cook yet!

I stayed at the Yale Club with my mom for a few nights! It is super nice and right across the street from Grand Central Station. I even got to see some of my Yale friends for a birthday party. It's nice to know I already have a group of very close friends in the City. We went to this amazing bar called The Press Lounge at Ink48. I felt totally not cool enough to be there, but it was AMAZING!

Once orientation started, I stayed up in Washington Heights. Everyone here is SUPER nice. Mom even made friends with the security guard and got to park right outside the building one day. I've already got a group of friends to hang out with, one of which I met at revisit weekend. We're all excited to explore the city and survive med school together!

Orientation was 5 days of non-stop action from 9am to 1am every day! We had sessions on student life, classes, and team-building exercised during the day -- my team won field day games (think wheel barrow races and egg tosses) and received a neuro reflex hammer as a prize! We met with our advisory deans (a built-in mentorship program), learned about the Hippocratic Oath (which we took Friday) and were told about all the support services available at P&S (say it fast and it sounds surprisingly like penis... we all quickly figured this out and never stopped giggling about it. Future doctors of America here, aren't you proud!)

The nights were spent going to restaurants we couldn't afford, bars we weren't cool enough for, and shows we won't have time for. All together it was an amazingly fun introduction to the city. The first night I ran into a friend who is going to Columbia Law school at a bar down by the main campus in Morningside Heights (aka Harlem).  The city seemed much smaller after that. I saw In the Heights, a big Tony winner, which is about the area I'm going to be living in for the next four years. It was AMAZING! The bar we went to afterwards was another rooftop, called the Hudson Terrace, where we ran into Joe Jonas, one of the famous Jonas Brothers. That was exciting! The third night we went on a river cruise (read: booze cruise) with the dental school. We all decided Lady Liberty looks a lot stockier close-up. It was fun and the 2nd years that had been leading us around all week got to let loose with us for once! Many went on to Johnny Utah's where they had a mechanical bull. I decided I needed to slow it down and get some sleep and returned to campus with a few friends. We drove right by the Seinfeld diner on the way!

On Thursday we began the real business of medical school with our first anatomy lecture and lab. My group got introduced to Richard, our cadaver for the next semester. We got over our squeemish-ness and the phenol smell to progress in our scalpel skills. I won't give any gory details, but it was a very cool, moving experience. Each cadaver in the lab donated their bodies specifically to P&S first years to learn anatomy. This was humbling and we tried not to get detached from the significance of what we were witnessing. I hope I will becoming more relaxed as the year goes on... my shoulders were quite tense when I got out. The final night was spent at Coffee House, a talent show display of the abilities of our classmates. Though shorter than the one at revisit, we witnessed a concert pianist, a comedy routine, a broadway sing-along, and an amazing cover band. The party moved up to our 11th floor roof lounge to end the night!

Friday began with a talk titled "On Becoming a Doctor" which made us all aware of the honor and responsibility that is gained with donning a white coat. It addressed the questions we are all sure to have over the next phase of our lives and opened us up to talking about our fears and excitements. It was followed by the White Coat Ceremony which was founded at P&S in 1993. Kathy Matthews, my mom's good friend from college, flew out to attend my ceremony (and to give my mom company on the drive home). After the ceremony, Mom, Kathy, and I went to tea at the Plaza Hotel, just like Eloise! We proceeded back to the Yale Club after a short walk (Mom has SO many blisters from her week in Manhattan!). Vidur, my friend from Yale, joined us for a celebratory dinner and drink afterward! Yesterday we explored the neighborhood of Chelsea in downtown, Manhattan, especially the Chelsea Markets, which is housed below the Food Network Studios! Lots of good produce, cooking utensils, food and an Athroplogie store! Mom got gelato while Kathy and I enjoyed crepes! We then had dinner at db Bistro Moderne, home of the $32 dollar hamburger made with foie gras, black truffles, and braised short ribs. The food was amazing and we proceeded down the street to see Memphis, this year's Tony Best Musical! This was my mom's 5th Broadway show in this visit! She had made a friend with a young guy from Finland who joined us for a drink afterward. He wants to do set design and directing and is on his way to Canada for school. 

Mom was glad to get into the car this morning after having walked ALL week! She said she has blisters on TOP of her blisters! She and Kathy drove me up to Washington Heights and helped me put some finishing touches on my room. They started their drive to Maumee, OH, the stop for tonight, while I took a nice long nap! It was necessary, as you can see!!!

Please update me on your life! I hope to keep up with this blog as much as possible, but remind me if I'm slacking!

Love you all!

Hayley

View from my dorm room window:

The Hudson River at sunset from the 8th floor of Bard Hall

The End of an Era

This is a post from my Google blog.

So, of course, it is the end of an era. The end of my freshman year has come and I still feel like I'm just getting used to life here at Yale. Perhaps I'll never be used to it. Perhaps my unrest is due to other large changes in my life that happen independent of a school year.

It's strange to think how much less sure I have become of everything since I arrived on campus.

Sure, I became sure that I HATE philosophy. I became sure that I am awful at Ping Pong. I became sure that having friends is the most important thing in the world.

But on the other hand, I became so unsure of what I want to do with my life. I imagined being a doctor with my white picket fence around a loving home in a small town, but I've learned that nothing is sure. I have been given a wake up call and I know now that nothing is as it seems. You never count on things staying the same. When you think they will, everything gets turned on its head and the only thing you can do is continue on. I learned:

Yale is not filled ONLY with uber-intelligent over-committed type-A's.

Getting a B is not the end of the world. There are so much bigger things to worry about.

The person you're with now may not be the one you will be with in the future, no matter what you want.

I cannot control everything.

Some choices can't be made by other people, and sometimes you make wrong choices.

This may all seem obvious to everyone reading, but to me, these are the most important lessons I have learned this year. I only hope that my mantra "everything happens for a reason" rings true in my sophomore year.

On a brighter note, I have accomplished so much this year that I never thought I could do. I rose the ranks in several organizations and will be holding leadership positions next year. I succeeded in some of the hardest classes I've ever experienced. I became comfortable enough with myself and I joined a sorority regardless of my preconceived notions of them (one of my best decision EVER-- I love you, girls). I danced without caring who was laughing at me because I wanted to! I cried and admitted that I needed help to my new found friends. I made new friends. I got to the point where I'm so sad to leave my world here that I'm not sure if I want to be home.

This summer should be a interesting one. One of my friends wrote a note about the strangeness that will be encountered when we all return home to our old lives and old friends. I am sure I will feel out of place, but I know and love my friends from home and I know they will welcome me back. I have great opportunities to explore this summer! I will be writing case study papers for the pediatric oncology unit at Gundersen (probably about some of my friends -- weird). I will be working at the pharmacy one or two days a week. I will be taking statistics at UWL. I will be learning new and interesting things about myself and life.

This year has been an interesting one, for the most part good. I can't say I have no regrets, but I can say that I know what I want to change in the future. Most of all, though, I will miss being able to say, "It's ok, I'm only a freshman," and have everyone understand and excuse my behavior. :)

Thanks so much for all your support this year!

--me

Yikes! Long time, no blog...

This is a post from my google blog.

Hey everyone,

I s'pose this is a strange time to be blogging considering I was just home, but I realized how behind I am...

Firstly, Parents' Weekend was soooo nice. The fall stretch of school is so long and it's nice to be able to break it up with a visit from the familiar. My parents even let me sleep in the comfortable bed at the hotel! Ah, a good night's sleep... We were super busy and the weekend wasn't long enough. We went to some great restaurants, went to meet the sorority girls, met with the Stiles Master, and went to one of my sister's improv comedy shows. It was a really busy weekend. We also went to go see Flags of Our Fathers which was intense but really good.

The next weekend, Stiles had a busy schedule. Friday night was a crazy Girl Talk concert. Girl Talk is an amazing DJ and if you haven't heard of him, you should check him out. He's a biomedical engineer by day and DJ by night... amazing concert! I was dancing on stage it was so good! Saturday night was Casino Night, rated in the top college parties by Rolling Stone. It was an amazing transformation from Dining Hall, to Concert Venue, to Casino! Everyone got all dressed up and was given chips at the door to gamble with. You could enter raffles with the "money" you made. I was working, so I didn't actually gamble at all, not that i would know how to anyway... It was really fun and I got married in the Little White Chapel (see facebook pictures).

*News Flash* Hayley went to a sporting event! Because Harvard was being dumb about the tailgate alcohol policy, the Princeton game became the focus of the most tailgating fun! I had a great time hanging out with my sorority sisters and all my Stiles friends. We were winning up until the fourth quarter when Yale essentially gave up and Princeton won... arghhhh... we could have held the Ivy Title to ourselves....

Not only did I go to ONE sporting event, I went to TWO! The Harvard game was the weekend that Thanksgiving Break started and I went to Boston on the bus. Although the tailgate was lame, the game was amazing. Yale won 34 to 13 and everyone rushed the field at the end. This would have been fine except that it was probably a 10 foot drop or more to the field so you basically had to jump and hope someone was there to catch you. My hands were bleeding from the concrete and one girl broke her leg, but it was still amazing!

After a freaky night alone in the dorm, I was on my way home for an amazing break! I watched Gilmore Girls with my mom, went and picked up Matt at school, went to Aquinas and saw all my old teachers, spent time with my family on Thanksgiving, and had a great reunion party with all of my friends. It was as if I never left.

Now I'm back on campus with two weeks of tough work ahead of me, one week of "Reading Week" where I'll finish one final paper and study for one final, and then my finals week of only one final. Then, thank goodness, I'll be back home. Wow. One eighth of my college career done. Oh, wait, I'm thinking of going to medical school... I'm not even CLOSE to being done... :P

Love you all and miss you!

Hayley

Updating is time consuming...

This is a post from my google blog.

So, I began updating this the other day. In fact, I had an entire entry almost done and then my computer randomly restarted... It's possessed, I swear...

Anywho... this probably won't be as long as the one I lost because that's too much time that I don't have a midterm...

CLASSES:

Intro to Chemistry: I scored far above the mean on my first test YAY and I like this class better now that I'm realizing it's the only one that I can study to control my grade, the only objective one... Oh, lab's fun too but I really hate writing the reports up... speaking of... I have to do that...

Intro to Cognitive Science: This class is really interesting, but I'm not really sure how to study for the mid term tomorrow... I hope the studying I did was sufficient...!

Life: Philosophy is basically bullshit... you sit around and think about thinking. The only thing I've learned is how to back up my opinions, or rather, seeing that there has to be a reason for what I believe. It's going all right. I got and average grade on my first paper, but I suppose that's not too bad considering my professor is known as being the hardest grader at Yale. I'm taking this class Credit/D/Fail for now so there's really no pressure.

English Writing Seminar: Well, I got a pretty good grade on my first paper. The class focuses on the "mind and the world" mostly through the Matrix. This means that I no longer have any desire to see, think, or talk about the Matrix EVER AGAIN! I have a paper due for that that I should be doing right now...

ACTIVITIES:

I am no longer writing for the music magazine because with the name change to Volume came a format change and I'm not really into the new ideas for the articles (features only). I did go to the Yo La Tengo concert. It was amazing! So fun! Also, I didn't get into an a cappella group, and thank god, because I have far too much on my plate as it is...

Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority: I know, right? Never would have expected it myself... But the Greek life here is so low key. No hazing. Only one night a week mandatory commitment. Plus, the girls are great! I have so much fun being a pledge for Kappas. I am always looking forward to the next event. Oh, by the way, if anyone has been watching Millionaire and saw a Yale student, that was my sorority sister Shani! She won 50,000 dollars!! Yay Shani!!!

Intramural Ping Pong: I suck, that's all there is to say... LOL.

Urinetown Assistant Stage Managing: The show is AMAZING! The actors and production people here are soooo good! I know why I didn't get in! My director is the developer/director of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee!!! I am so amazed at the people you can connect with here!

Colleges Against Cancer: Wednesday is paint campus pink day all across the country, so don't forget to wear pink!!! I am involved in the Survivorship committee. We are working to create a support system for those on campus who are affected directly and indirectly by cancer. At this point there is NOTHING for people who just need someone to talk to. I am also, through my faculty advisor who is at the Med. School, working with their brand new survivorship clinic and program to integrate the two campuses and move forward with survivorship resources and opportunities to work with local cancer patient! It's a very exciting time to be involved in CAC because we are still in the developing stages.

CURRENT EVENTS:

Master's Teas: The Master's (heads) of each residential college brings in a special guest about once a month to give a small talk/q&a. I went to the one I talked about before (the stem cell liaison to the UN) and recently I was also able to go to one with one of the writers/producers of Boston Legal!!! I LOVE that show! He was talking about what television production/writing is like, gave sneak peeks into what will be happening on the show, and even told us that he aspires to write like the Gilmore Girls show writers! For all you who make fun of me for watching Gilmore Girls, I TOLD you it had amazing writing!! Tomorrow, Eric Whitacre is coming to a Master's Tea!!! He is one of the most amazing choral composers of our time in my opinion. Boz already asked me to get an autograph for him... I'm soooo excited!

Dances: Silliman recently had their infamous Safety Dance, an 80s extravaganza for the whole campus! We first met up at Shani's place for a bit of fun before the dance then moved on to Commons for an amazingly elaborate dance complete with lighting effects and everything (see pictures). It was a crazy night, but I'm not going to post about it on here, so ask. ;) Also, we recently had our Stiles/Morse Screw dance which is a double blind date dance where your roommates set you up with someone else through their roommates and they make you find each other in goofy ways. For example, one girl had to stand on Old Campus with two baseballs while her date went around asking everyone he saw, "Have you seen my balls?"... yeah... we're really mature. I set Rolake up with Vidur from downstairs. Rolake had to pretend to be a frog and Vidur was dressed as a lillypad and had to lay out on O.C. Rolake had to hop to find him. It would have been hilarious, but Vidur was lame and wouldn't lay down, and Rolake already knew who her date was so she barely hopped and just went up to him. My date was Ryan from downstairs. He's really nice and has a girlfriend so it was perfect. We both already knew we were each other's date so it was lame in that we didn't have to do anything goofy. The dance was a bit awkward in the way school dances always are, but it was still a fun night!

Drowsy Chaperone: Stiles and all the colleges frequently have raffles for tickets to various events in the surrounding areas, including NYC. I recently entered one for free tickets and transportation to NYC to see The Drowsy Chaperone on Broadway!! I won!! Yay! It was nominated for 5 Tony's and won 2. It was HILARIOUS! It was so strange to just go to New York City on a whim. It is such a big deal at home to have gone to NYC... It was really surreal. Oh, by the way, I had a celebrity sighting in NYC. The girl who plays Haley on One Tree Hill was having a conversation right where we were waiting for our bus! It was really cool, but I decided to suppress my dorkiness and not take a picture...

Overall, I've been really homesick. Like everyone I've talked to, I feel like I don't belong all the time. I am starting to find my place, however, and things are falling together nicely. I'm learning that a B is good and that a C is average and I shouldn't be ashamed of them as a freshman. I'm learning that you have to make serious compromises when living with other people. I'm learning that finding people you can confide in isn't always so easy. I'm learning. That's what I'm here for after all...

Off to get stuff done, as usual...

<3>