One week done, 35 to go

The first week of second year is done! This time, everything feels a little more laid back than last year. Rather than starting with a dump of new information, our profs are trying to get us to remember concepts we learned first year, then linking those to new things. Here are my impressions so far:

• Pathology: pretty easy so far, as all we've covered is how cells respond to injury (three main ways: adapt, blow up, or collapse and die). I can definitely see how this class will take over my life once we get to more difficult concepts- it's like a culmination of anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology from last year.
• Clinical Skills: very excited for this one, as they've revamped it since last year. We'll spend the year doing two hour "mini-rotations" through different parts of the hospital, and get to see real clinicians doing real procedures on real patients. We're supposed to get experience doing certain techniques (like taking a history, doing a physical exam, etc) that we learned last year, which will of course be handy. We also started intro to surgery, in preparation for our first surgeries next semester (eek!).
• Professional Skills: sometimes a tedious class, this semester's installment feels a little more connected to the real world than last year's. We started out with a discussion comparing the ethical obligations of human physicians towards their patients and our obligations towards our patients/clients. Much more stimulating than talking about opportunities in government work!
• Bacteriology: our professor is no Ted Johnson, but I still love bacteria. I hope the lab gets more challenging, as they spent a good portion of our first session teaching us how to use a microscope. :-/
• Parasitology: Mike Swift imbued me with an undying love for invertebrates, including the parasites, so I think I'll like this class too. Look at little Giardia, isn't he adorable?
• Zoo Topics: this is our second semester of zoo class. I still really enjoy it- where else would you hear the phrase "His puncture wound would be healing up faster if he'd stop digging his finger around in it."?
• Epidemiology, Pharmacology (Antimicrobial agents), Swine Core: we don't start these until later in the semester.

I've taken the bus every day this week, and it's really very convenient. I pick it up in front of the apartment and it drops me off closer to school than I would get if I drove and parked. My total commute time is about 10 minutes. Not bad! Now, anyone want a kinda crummy old purple Saturn SL1?

One last thing- I had this kinda funny conversation with a first year this week.

Me, to another second-year: I thought I remembered a second-year teaching me how to do a physical exam of a horse to fulfill his Clinical Skills requirement. Do we have to teach a first year how to do a physical?
First year who overheard: We've already learned how to do a physical exam.
Me: Right, but I think we have to teach you, too, so that we get teaching experience.
First year: Oh, I guess they taught us officially so that we wouldn't be left at the mercy of you.

Ouch! Dissed by a first year during the first week of class. This does not bode well.