I’m flying back to San Francisco for Labor Day Weekend, but I never seem to come prepared to entertain myself on long flights. Luckily, one of my favorite plane pastimes is to browse the Skymall and fantasize about the excessive gadgets I will buy once I’m rich. Here are some of my favorites:

Casio Green Slim Projector: This portable device uses a “revolutionary” laser and LED to deliver high-brightness, eco-friendly projections. At a conference or business meeting trying to pitch my new greatest idea, I can wirelessly connect my own and up to three more computers. BUT, if I happen to meet Bill Gates in a coffee shop, I could whip out my projector from my purse and instantly deliver my presentation from my THUMBDRIVE (no computer needed!). It doesn’t matter if I have a good idea, Bill will be won over by my awesome gadget. The projector will pay for itself! ($1599.99)

Digital Notepad with Memory: This clipboard pen combo captures all of your handwritten notes in digital form. You’re probably thinking, that’s just the same thing as a tablet. BUT there is nothing electronic that can parallel the gratifying feeling of ordinary ink on paper. I guess there is a sensor on the pen that goes through the paper and works with the clipboard somehow (magnetically?) to track your pen movements. This would be an amazing tool for med school, and isn’t too much out of the price range for someone my age. Hey – anyone wanna buy me an early Christmas present? ($149.99)

Nano-UV Disinfection Wand: I hate cleaning, but I am sensitive to dust and insect bites. The Nano-UV Disinfection Wand seems like it could definitely solve this dilemma for me. You simply pass the wand over the area you want to clean (pillows, carpet, food) and it instantly kills microorganisms. If I had this then maybe my bed wouldn’t have gotten infested with bedbugs last year > < For those OCD people who won’t use public toilets, you can also fold it to fit easily in your purse. The catalogue doesn’t mention how it works, but I assume it uses UV rays to kill the critters. So, theoretically, you could also use it on your enemies and induce skin cancer… ($159.99)

Towel Spa: The one and only chore that I actually enjoy is drying clothes. In fact, when my boyfriend and I were just housemates, I made a deal with him. I would wash both of our clothes if he would do the dishes. Washing dishes is my most dreaded chore, because growing up my mom would yell at me for washing them too loudly. But taking a big batch of clothes out of the dryer right as it is finished is the most amazing feeling because it feels like the warm clothes are hugging you. I like to dump them on my bed and just lie on top, taking in the warmth and smell of downy. (Clearly, I lacked affection as a child). Well that was a really long tangent to explain why I find this gadget so awesome. What it does is heat your towels, robes, mittens, hats, pillows, whatever. The catalogue advertises that you will feel like you are going to a spa, but I prefer to think of it as drying my clothes every time I take a shower. ($79.99)

Head and Eye Massager: If you’ve never had a head massage, get one! Better yet, get one of these! ($199.99)

Headache Relieving Wrap: Sometimes I wake up with a headache due to lack of sleep, and I cannot be productive for the whole day. When I get migraines, it’s as if I can feel the rotation of the Earth and the vibrations rattle my brain inside my skull. This wrap uses pressure to compress blood vessels and relieve headaches. Makes sense, considering that I learned that headaches result from the pressure of a brain swelling against the skull. If you constrict blood vessels and impede blood flow to the brain, you prevent water from entering and enlarging your brain cells. You could just use your hands to push on your skull, but that’s not as cool ($49.95)

Video Screen Microscope: In med school, we never look at real tissues on real slides with real microscopes. We look at “digital” slides, basically, saved images of tissues. The rationale is to save time and money, not only because these tissues don’t have to be preserved, but because multiple people can look at the screen at the same time. No more one microscope per person. Meanwhile, digital slides improve quality and standardize the experience for all students (making sure we can all see the same thing and that what we’re seeing is a good enough sample). Yet no matter how accurate it is, it’s just not the same as looking at the real thing. How can we appreciate the intricacies of a pathologic cell if we’re just looking at a screen that’s reading back 1′s and 0′s? This video microscope can reconcile these concerns. It is a fully functional microscope that projects the slides digitally onto a screen. Multiple students can look at the same slide, and that slide contains real cells. If only med school deans stopped reading scientific articles and browsed Skymall instead… ($299.95)

Cast Iron Giraffe Paper Holder: I love art with a purpose. A giraffe statue whose neck doubles as a toilet paper holder? Why not? ($29.95)

Darn! That only entertained me for two hours, four more to go!

Mood 5 Can’t fall asleep on this flight…/Tiredness 4 Awake since 8AM and went to ALL my classes today/Spiritual Tiredness 5 Running behind on exam studying but looking forward to spending the weekend with my boyfriend!

Update 9/8: As I’m inserting the pics from froogle, I’m realizing that the market prices are half the skymall cost. They really benefit off of bored travelers…

So I started this blog in 2009, but stopped writing for about a year. What did I do in the meantime? Mostly, I studied and applied to med school. But I also did plenty of fun things, like finally go on a real Spring Break! (As opposed to all my other Spring Breaks, which were spent volunteering and saving the world.)

My boyfriend and I went on a cruise down the Mexican Riviera, from LA to Cabo to Puerto Vallarta. We did all the things that you do on a stereotypical college Spring Break. In addition to getting drunk, having sex, gambling, singing karaoke, and sunbathing, we also…

Hung out at the beach (Playa de los Muertos in Puerto Vallarta)

Played mini-golf on the deck of the cruise ship (how cool is that!)

Went snorkeling in the Sea of Cortez. By the way, I wouldn’t recommend this. The water is freezing and murky. I’ve had way better snorkeling experiences.

The boat trip to take us to the Sea of Cortez with the open bar, however, made the venture worthwhile.

Swam with horseys [!]

And watched the sun set over the Pacific.

Overall though, I wouldn’t want to do it again. On a seven day cruise, five were spent on the boat. Despite the fact that we traveled on Carnival’s largest ship in the fleet, the Splendor, a boat really is not that big once you’ve been stuck on it for that long. Although I wouldn’t have believed it beforehand, drinking and having sex does get boring. Visiting new places is more my thing, but the parts of Mexico we visited really didn’t seem that new. Everyone spoke English and accepted US dollars. In fact, it seemed as if there were more Americans than Mexicans. I didn’t get any sense of Mexican culture or daily life.

Except for one little glimpse when we traveled to a family operated Tequila farm. The family farms agave plants, which are then placed in a kiln and the juice turned to Tequila. Even though the tour guide could speak English, the rest of the family couldn’t. There was a shy little girl who looked about ten following us around. She wore an embroidered white dress with red flowers and parted her long brown hair in pigtails. She hadn’t yet lost her baby fat, so she still maintained a cherubic charm. When I asked her why she wasn’t in school (it was a Wednesday), she told me she didn’t attend school. That really startled me, because I did not realize the extent of the poverty here and the degree of reliance the people in these towns have on tourism. And it made me feel ashamed to have put her in a situation to reveal her family’s economic situation. Even with all the amount that they rip off the foreigners, they still can’t earn enough to send their children to school.  ”Ella habla Espanol — She speaks Spanish!” she told her mother. Her mother also spoke only Spanish, and invited us to try some of her homecooked stew. “Que es?” I asked. “Lengua de cerdo — Pig tongue.” I decided I had had enough after just one bite.”Porque no compras tequila? — Why aren’t you going to buy some Tequila?” the little girl asked me. I couldn’t tell her no, so I said it was my boyfriend’s decision. He didn’t buy any either.

The other time I got a chance to speak Spanish was to a family taking a picture with the Puerto Vallarta mermaid. I noticed that the father was taking a picture for his wife and son, so I offered to take a picture of their entire family. Unfortunately, it had been a while since I spoke any Spanish, and mixed up my conjugation. Somehow he thought I wanted him to take my picture. After an awkward clarification, I finally convinced them to let me take their picture (they didn’t really seem like they wanted to, but after all that trouble, why not?). Then they told me to try some kind of juice, but unfortunately I couldn’t understand what they were saying and managed to only find out that it was from a fruit similar to coconut.

These are the kind of experiences I want in my travels abroad, not spending most of my time with Americans in bikinis. Unfortunately, even when you leave America these days, it is nearly impossible to leave America. So why oh why did I let my boyfriend convince me to go on a Christmas cruise to the Caribbean?

I went home this weekend, but my original trip back to school on Sunday was canceled due to the hurricane – so I sent an email to my school administrator explaining why I had no choice but to stay at home. Thanks Irene for the three day weekend! Unfortunately, classes were held as usual so I have a lot to catch up on. On the three hour bus ride, I decided to watch The Blind Side. My brother recently started playing football and his trainer recommended this movie.

I can’t remember the last time I cried this much.

The Blind Side is based on the true story of Michael Oher and his adoptive family, the Tuohy’s. Born to a crackhead mother and bounced around foster homes, Michael starts high school homeless with a 0.6 GPA. The Tuohy’s take him in and eventually legally adopt him, helping him to achieve his athletic potentials and setting him on the path to a football scholarship and NFL professional career with the Baltimore Ravens.

The movie won’t keep you on the edge of your seat, it won’t have you shuddering in fear, but it will grip you by the throat as you are forced to re-evaluate yourself and what you stand for. Just like how the kindness of the Tuohy’s changed the course of Michael’s life, The Blind Side will change the way you think about people, interact with others, and the course of your life for the better. When asked how he coped with his jagged childhood, Michael responds, (from my memory, not verbatim) “My Mama told me to close my eyes while she did drugs so that I wouldn’t see. And when it was all done, it would all be in the past.” But we can’t just keep closing our eyes to the lives of others. Although we know that this story ends happily, it could have easily not been the case. To just think about how many lives with such great potential are neglected, or even ended…

And I can’t forget to mention Sandra Bullock, whose portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy reminds us that you don’t have to be a saint, you can change a life.

As I type, world greats Usain Bolt and Liu Xiang are leaving their competitors in the dust at the Track & Field World Championships in Daegu, Korea. Witnessing the athletic finesse  of these men and women from around the world is incredible. Sub-four miles, two-hour marathons, gunshots, adrenaline,and  huge musculature make for exciting competition and good eye-candy. No doubt that during the finals in the next two days, we will see world records broken by athletes running faster than believed to be humanly possible. And then there is Oscar Pistorius, the South African double-amputee born with no fibulas who races against fully able-bodied runners.

If they can do this, then maybe I can get my butt off the couch and to the gym. I’ve always had a predisposed disliking of the gym, that it’s artificial, that it’s for people who want to look hot rather than for the enjoyment of exercise. Also, they charge $30 a month for students at my new school, whereas it was free for students at my previous school. But I guess my lack of exercise in the past two weeks proves that without that motivation of paying for a service, I have no discipline to force myself to get in shape. So I’ve decided to sign up and even sign up for a class or personal training, just so I can understand how to properly get fit and put myself on a forced schedule.

But for now, I’m gonna keep lounging on my couch watching these amazing athletes.

When you see a yellow light, you speed up. When you see a pedestrian crossing the road…

Well apparently you speed up as well. While I was in the middle of a crosswalk today, a van sped down the road, honked the horn, and continued past me. It’s not just this guy, but in general I see cars turning right at intersections without yielding to crossing pedestrians. When I complained about this to my boyfriend, he told me that maybe the laws in Pennsylvania were different.

So to settle this matter,

Title 75 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes contains the laws which govern the operation of vehicles on Pennsylvania roads.

Section 3542. Right-of-way of pedestrians in crosswalks. (a) General rule.—When traffic-control signals are not in place or not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.Section 3542. Right-of-way of pedestrians in crosswalks. (a) General rule.—When traffic-control signals are not in place or not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.

That’s not to say that Pennsylvania drivers are worse than California drivers. This summer I was trying to park in front of a Starbucks. I was pulling into an empty spot when suddenly a car appeared from around the corner that was also trying to grab that spot. We both kept inching forward and stopping, unsure if the other person would take the spot. Eventually I got tired of it and drove fully into the spot. The other driver, a twenty something blonde in sunglasses and a red convertible yelled, “You’re a CUNT!” and drove off (presumably to the next row, where there were plenty of parking spaces).

I keep changing my mind between hating everyone and loving everyone. Right now, I’m just disappointed in humanity.

Mood: 6 freezing on a bus home and my return trip has been canceled due to the hurricane!/Tiredness: 6 hungry and tired/Spiritual Tiredness: 6 when will I ever catch up with life?

I never thought that cooking was a worthwhile activity. All of that time that you spend cooking is just not worth it. And there are all the hidden costs too. There are the costs of utilities, kitchen tools, ingredients that are wasted because you didn’t manage your groceries and they all went bad. Then you invest the time to plan meals, grocery shop, clean the dishes, clean the kitchen, and manage your inventory.

But in the end, it’s still not as expensive as buying a meal. And when you’re living off of student loans, you have to think in your head that every dollar you spend is at least two dollars that you will have to repay in the future, then that $20 dinner comes out to more like $40.

The obvious solution would be to cook. Unfortunately, the only way to eat on a budget if you don’t know how to cook, is to eat lots of frozen food, which is exactly what I’ve been doing for the past week. A much younger version of me wouldn’t have believed it, but I can only have so much of hot pockets and pizza bagels. The problem is exacerbated due to time constraints. When you come home exhausted from a long day of class, the last thing I want to do is go buy groceries, make dinner, and clean it up. By the time that’s all done, it’s time to go to sleep. And even when I go through all of that effort, I can’t taste the difference between my meal and the burnt products that I made in chem lab.

Now that I see the importance of cooking skills for anyone who can’t afford to hire a personal chef, it’s too late for me to learn. I know that the initial reaction is, “It’s never too late”. But honestly, if I have an exam coming up then I am not going to spend hours learning a new recipe if I can just fry an egg in 2 minutes and eat it with a piece of bread.

Which brings me to the lesson I want all of you college kids to draw from this: learn to cook when you are younger and have time and can spend your parents’ money, and you will save money and time when it matters!

or

Date a rich boyfriend with a strong sense of chivalry. (If you opt for this approach, do not enter a long distance relationship with said rich boyfriend as I have.)

Did you know:

Genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA of any two individuals can tell you how long it has been since they shared a mother.

Mitochondria are very ancient cell structures that were incorporated into the cell by engulfing a primitive bacteria. Although most of the original mitochondrial DNA has migrated to the nucleus, a subset of genes are still retained within the mitochondria’s own genome. Because the mitochondria is so critical for producing all the energy our cells use, it is super important that mitochondrial proteins remain stable and do not show as much variability as other genes. To accomplish this, mitochondrial DNA do not undergo the normal processes of meitoic recombination that nuclear DNA does. Therefore, mitochondrial DNA is highly conserved throughout generations, more so than the nuclear genome. Another interesting point is that mitochondrial DNA is passed maternally. For whatever reason, more mitochondrial DNA is present in the egg than in the sperm. So, one can trace an individual’s maternal lineage through looking at mitochondrial gene sequences.

Whew. So what was the point of all that? I’m not just trying to lecture you about science. This got me thinking… If we go back far enough, we all came from the same mother. Somewhere up in heaven is an old African woman looking down at all of her great great great great (great)^n grandchildren. And that woman is wondering, “What they hell are they doing?”

Yesterday, I was so angry at random strangers for small actions. But maybe they had a bad day. Or maybe they’re just jerks. But hey, I have three brothers who can be jerks but they’re still my brothers. It’s not just my personal life, but larger conflicts around the world. The front page is full of war in Libya or suicide bombings, or just last night my classmate heard gunshots at a basketball court in the shady part of town – six people were wounded with one in critical condition. Maybe world leaders and gang leaders alike need to learn a little something about mitochondrial genetics.

So yeah, I think I can forgive those jerks. Because we all come from the same mother.

And they say you don’t learn anything useful in the first year of med school..

You might have heard the cookie story: A woman buys a pack of cookies and sits down. As she grabs a cookie from the package on the armrest, the man sitting in the next seat grabs one as well. This continues until only the very last cookie remains. The man splits the cookie and offers her half. By now she has concluded that the man is a total jerk, and huffs away. Later, she realizes the pack of cookies she bought was still unopened in her purse.

(If you haven’t heard the story, you can read the full version here)

Yes, often times we can jump to conclusions about others being a jerk. But sometimes… people are really just jerks. I admire those with the personality that can just let little things slide. I can’t. I dwell on them enough to the point that I have to blog about it.

While waiting for the Blue Man Group concert to start in San Francisco, the women in the theater all decided to use the sole restroom. The line stretched out into the lobby. I walked a path to the end of the line that was perpendicular to the line itself, while at the same time another woman with the same destination walked a path along the length of the line. We reached the end of the line at the same time. Gesturing to let me go ahead, I politely thanked her and took the spot. Five minutes later, she shoves me from behind and yells, “Hey! I was letting you pass, not letting you cut me in the line!”  I should’ve said, “You offered me the spot, and please don’t touch me again.” Instead, I let her push me around (quite literally). I mumbled sorry and walked to the end of the line, which had grown much longer in the five minutes she waited to yell at me.

Adjusting to a new city is difficult. At the very least, I would expect people to follow the laws and thereby give me some sense of predictability. While crossing the street at a traffic light pedestrian crosswalk, a biker suddenly zoomed past and nearly hit me. “Hey man, that’s a red light!” I yelled at him, flustered from the near-miss.  ”Crystal! Shut up!” My boyfriend yelled at me, “You don’t want to start a fight.” That’s what you should do though, fight for yourself, and don’t let anyone prevent you from doing so. A world where people run red lights? Where are we, in a developing region of Asia?

This weekend I wanted to buy some postcards from this new city, so I stepped in a gift shop. The owner sharply informed me that she didn’t have change and did I have small bills. I asked my friend to borrow some cash, and he placed the bills onto the counter. The owner scowled something that I didn’t hear, so I asked her to repeat herself. “It’s disrespectful to throw money at people.” Well, it’s also disrespectful to lecture your customers. If I were less of a wuss, I would’ve taken my ‘disrespectful’ money and my business elsewhere.

Today I was eating lunch on a bench. Two students passed by and threw their bottle into the trashcan right next to me and missed. The bottle rolled under my bench. They walked away. I threw away their trash. Not only jerks, but also inconsiderate of the environment and lazy.

The list could go on and on, but these are the first examples that pop into my head. We were all raised to be considerate of others, and I’m sure no one purposefully tries to be inconsiderate, yet why are there still so many jerks out there? I guess the conclusion isn’t that they are jerks, but rather that they are idiots.

The first semester of med school here is pass/fail. No one fails. That means that really, this semester is meant as a cushion for those of us who either cruised through undergrad or took relaxing gap years (or both) to get our act together. With all of the information thrown at us, we really need to find a way to handle it now, because upperclassmen have told me that it only gets worse.

Mistake #1. I strolled into lab on the second day to find that I was the only one who couldn’t remember the names of the cell types and structures we had just heard about in the previous day’s lecture. Turns out that everyone had gone home and reviewed.

Mistake #2. The next day, I slept in and missed four hours of lecture in the morning. As a result, I kept watching lectures online days behind my classmates who were going to the live lectures. It took me well into my weekend to catch up.

So suffice it to say that my first week didn’t go too well. But that’s ok, because I’m caught up now and this week is a new week. It’s ok to hiccup a little at the beginning, as long as I find my groove. Here is the study plan that I’ve realized works pretty well for me:

1. Day before lecture (or during live lecture if necessary): Pre-read lecture notes and take handwritten notes. I really need to process new information on my own pace or I get very lost for the rest of the material. Also, handwriting everything is essential for burning it into my memory. (~1 hr per lecture)

2. Day of lecture (1 hour after live lecture ends): Watch lecture online at 2x speed to reinforce concepts and fill in handwritten notes. Note any questions I have to email or ask during small group sessions. Being able to speed up or slow down or pause as necessary is key so I have time to write things down. Also controlling when I watch lecture so that I am the most alert is a plus. (~ 45 min per lecture)

3. Review problem sets and labs after completing them in a group on my own to make sure I fully understand everything.

4. Every weekend: Transfer handwritten notes into an electronic outline with only the main points that I need to study. Especially focus on understanding the big picture rather than detailed pieces of information

5. Before exam: Study from the outline, answer practice questions, and reinforce main points

Yes, I realize that this study plan requires a certain amount of discipline, which I lack. However, one of the traits needed to be a doctor is discipline, so hopefully I will develop that skill sometime in medical school.

P.S. I was so bored while reading my embryology lecture notes until I came across an amazing realization. An ex of mine had told me before that he was born with his head tilted and required surgery. I now know that this is called “congenital torticolis” or wryneck, which is a result of shorterning and fibrosis of the sternocleidomastoid muscle on one side of the body. Cool, right?

A truism about medical school is that you’re going to graduate with debt, and lots of it. Another truism about medical schools is that someone just out of college can make the same amount as you after four years of medical school and 4+ years of further training. I just cashed a $9,000 check today that is supposed to last me the rest of the semester (which will take me 30 years to pay off, but at least I have a positive in my bank account right now). I realized that I had absolutely no money sense when I bought a book last year called, “How to save money”. The operative word being bought. Suddenly my bank account went from plump and fat to worrying about over drafting when buying lunch.

I figure it’s probably a good idea for me to make a budget. I did just spend $1500 on new furniture and other items, and $1200 on a new Macbook Air, but I won’t count them since they are not recurring expenses. Plus, the $4,000 I earned over the summer slaving away as a research assistant will be more than enough to cover those.

Rent + Utilities: $850/month for 5 months = $4250

Groceries: $30/week for 18 weeks = $540

Miscellaneous items: $20/month for 5 months = $100

Leaving me $4110 in discretionary funds, or $228 per week! I can really live the wild side now!