Chinese herbs

We had our first exam on Friday. I honestly don't have a clue as to how it went. It was more difficult than I had expected, but only because people (as in 2nd years) kept saying that it was going to be easy, and our course director encouraged us all week to "focus on the overarching concepts" rather than the minute details. Well, at least 80% of the exam was on the minute details. Thank god for those 6 years in grad school! Still, there were a few things I just didn't really learn, because I honestly thought we would learn it later on. Anyway, I am sure it's gonna be different the next time, knowing what to expect and all. Let's say this was a trial run.

So they say that med students study hard and party even harder. That seems to be the case here. To make up for the nights spent in the library, a lot of people were determined to... well, let's just say, to party on Friday night. Living in the "dorms" and being around a lot of younger people, I figured I would try this. After all, I don't want to be that older chick who never goes out.

Ok, I take that back. I will happily be that person who never goes out (with them). In the future.

I read a blog written by a girl who seems to be in a pretty similar situation to me. Worked for some time after college, then decided to go back to med school in her late 20's, she lives somewhere in the DC area. She often writes about her experiences with people in med school. She wrote several times since I started reading her blog that she only likes a handful of people in her class. I imagine we are in similar shoes here. While I have met a lot of really nice people in the past few weeks, I am pretty sure I will only be close with a handful of them, and the 150 other people I will never much care for. That's ok. I think it's much better to be focused on the more important things anyway. Like getting that MD.

So yeah, the Friday night party was pretty crazy. There was a broken ping pong table even before we left for the bar. There were of course shots, handles of liquor, cases of beer... then, a dark, slightly sleazy bar with really bad drinks, maybe 80 med students... yeah, not my thing. And when leaving early, someone asked "but how are you gonna get home?" I said, "I am taking the subway, of course" to which, there were stares of disbelief. I just smiled to myself. And decided that I really don't much care for fitting in.

With that said, there are a few people I really do like here. There is my very caring roommate for instance. Almost every day she asks me if I want to try this or that thing that she's cooking. Almost always, she ends up making me a meal a day at least. These past few days, I have had this lingering cold, sore throat and all, that just wasn't getting any better. Her Mom recently sent her a Chinese Mom care package, which included some food, tea and some unidentifiable things. She swore that if I drank this herbal tea I would not get a cold. So I have been drinking this slightly scary looking substance for a few days now. It doesn't taste bad, it's sweet, and well, even if it's not doing anything, it's surely not hurting me. Right? Then, yesterday, I came home complaining that my throat was still hurting. She said we needed stronger measures: the tea was for prevention, but now that I had the disease, let's be more aggressive. She took something out of the fridge: little vials neatly packed in a carton box, the color of soy sauce. She took a needle and punctured the top of two vials, stuck tiny little straws in them, and said that I HAD to drink one. She was drinking the other one - I think because she knew I wouldn't do it otherwise. She said it would be a little bitter. Was it bitter? Holy shit! Well, anyway, it went down. I figured it couldn't be any worse than Unicum (without the alcohol, of course).

This morning, I wasn't feeling too much better. Throat still sore, my voice in the morning must have been a little disconcerting because our Korean friend who came over for breakfast immediately offered me even stronger medicine. She said this was magical Korean stuff. Just don't ask what it is. She said she had taken it the night before since she wasn't feeling well either, and voila, today, she was perfect and well rested. She said "Don't worry, these will knock you out, you'll get a great night's sleep, and will feel like new the next day." All right, I told her I would try one. Turns out, it's a package. Of 6 pills. SIX. Yes. And the 6th one is a half. I wonder what would happen if I took a whole one of #6.

I don't know whether, as a future doctor, my decision can be considered a wise one. But I have to admit, I just took 6 pills of unknown identity, which came in this little pouch. I am kind of desperate for a good night's sleep right now. Let's see what happens.