PT School: proof of fun.

The DPT Class of 2012 of UCSF/SFSU is fortunate enough to have a talented video artist, Tin Pham, within the ranks. Since the first video he showed, I knew he was sharing some cool stuff, and this most recent video pretty much has me as one of the main characters/singers. I figured that it is time to share them all in one place:

Intimidation Videos for a Flip Cup Rivalry with the Second Year DPT Students:

Training

Set-Up

Thank you to DPT 2 for all you do...

Side Note: I am not in the first few videos very much, and I wasn't even able to attend the final showdown of Flip Cup because of a wedding back east...but I don't think we won.

October (The pictures of people dressed up is at my Lady Gaga party. I'm the one in the blond wig)

End of Fall Quarter 2009/Holidays

Class trip to Tahoe: February 13-15th

This is the video where I'm actually filmed. And I'm singing my heart out. I also managed to work with Brianna and a few others to feed all 25 of us that were there all weekend. It was awesome.

Sometimes there is rain.

I moved to California under the impression that it was the Golden State due to its sunny nature. Then I found out that it's only named this because the grass all dies in the summer due to lack of rain, and so the hills literally appear "gold"--or so someone thought. This statement reminds me of how green Greenland is, not that I've been.





We've been caught in a few days of rain. Today it appeared gorgeous this morning, and I believed that it would remain this way all day (especially since we had a reprieve yesterday). Regardless, I was wrong, and I rode my bike home in the rain. While some might find this dirty and cold, which it was; it was also incredibly fun, and it made me feel alive.




Also, the city has recently revealed that it isn't all chilly, bleak, rainy days. These are a few shots I've taken with my iphone.

Hello 2010.

Ha! Remember that time I blogged? Ya, me neither. :)

Well, I made a new year's resolution: to blog 1x/month. Unfortunately, based on the current date, I've already failed. But I am unwilling to completely fail: so here I am trying to make up for January (we're not too far into February, right?). I made this new year's resolution because of a comment from my long lost Pookster, Katie O, who resides in Kenya and rarely gets to catch up with me. I figured that others might also be curious about what I've been up to as well.

Not much has changed, really, since I last blogged in JULY 2009. Wow, that's embarrassing: July. Anyway, not much has changed except my wonderful growing knowledge of PT and life and love and new friends...Yes, I have had time for a few things despite my schedule. However, these aren't always easy to manage. As I write this, I am procrastinating studying more for a midterm tomorrow in Physiology on the kidneys and the GI tract. Exciting as they can be, I'm tired of solute channels and the causes of osmotic diarrhea. Though, speaking of weird bodily functions, please share any with me, as my new favorite thing seems to parsing out diagnoses and illnesses with their respective medication lists. No joke. Really. Try me.

I did have a fantastic January in my program: I was able to participate in my very first clinical rotation at a hospital in San Francisco. Three times per week I spent my afternoons shadowing a PT in the acute care (read: with pretty sick people) and then eventually, I saw some patients under the supervision of the PT. It was cool! And it was exhausting: both mentally and physically AND emotionally. On my first day, I saw an elderly couple (separately, as one was in the ICU) who were in the same car accident. They had both already spent an extended amount of time in the hospital and were recovering from fractured pelvises and legs, diaphragm ruptures, and emergency surgery to save their lives. And now they were basically living in the hospital with no family to speak of. This hit me pretty hard. I had to go in and work with each of them on moving their arms and legs (in PT speak=range of motion, ROM). Both were a little resistant and distrusting of all the people bustling in and out of their rooms. I can understand why, too: bells, alarms, buzzers all go off constantly in the hospital at all hours--especially in the ICU. There is such thing at ICU psychosis, and I definitely can see why. Anywho, I saw each of them several times during my rotation, but they both remain in the hospital as far as I know. Luckily, the nurses and staff were willing to go out on a limb for them, since they had been there so long, and they arranged for them to get together (for one to get rolled down to ICU to see the other). I wasn't there for the reunion, but I think they at least were grateful to see a familiar face.

In the midst of the clinical, I also had class. Now that the rotation is over, I just have class. This is a slight bummer as we average 25-30 hrs/week. I understand that this sounds lovely compared to working full-time, but it's a little hard when those are just hours spent listening, not necessarily synthesizing information. However, I have definitely been able to have some information start sinking into my brain--and it feels so amazing.

This is turning into a longer break from studying than I was anticipating, but I think it was worth it.

honeymoons and fluff and...stress

You know how people talk about the honeymoon period in relationships? That time when you just LOVE who you are with and every single thing that you do together? Well, I feel like that was kind of how I was feeling about my relationship with grad school just a little bit ago, like the last time I blogged. I mean, I mentioned that it's hectic and all, but I hadn't even made it through the second week.

Week 4 is different. I'm older, more mature, and I've had a midterm already. Ya, say goodbye to those carefree days of not being tested. I didn't do as well as I wanted on the midterm, so I'm already studying for the final for this particular class, which only lasts half a quarter. The final is a week from this Thursday. I mean, whoa.

I also realized that after spending $350 on books (all on extreme sale/used from Amazon.com), I actually managed to miss 5 other books that I am supposed to have on hand at this point. Wtf? Can't a girl catch a break here? I already purchased 8 books. Remember the good ole days of 1-2 books per class?

Well, my griping really isn't going to help me learn any muscle attachments and innervations, so I guess it's time to get back to work!

mondays...

pt school is undergrad on crack. i had quite the week, last week, navigating how to get to school, bringing the right texts, wearing the right clothes, bringing enough food, getting access to a bike cage, working out students loans, oh, and then i was learning stuff all week, too. whew. the weekend was a tiny bit of a catch up, but not as much as i would have liked. grad school = intense.

i had 8 hours of class today. that's a lot of class. it was also ALL anatomy. so gloria, my cadaver, and i got to spend a lot of quality time together today. it was mostly good. sometimes stinky. other times incredibly stinky.

The first steps to becoming a physical therapist.

It's 3 pm on a Saturday. Can you guess where I am? Usually this question has a million potential answers, however, from here on out, I think that there will be a 80% chance that my whereabouts will be consistent at any given time/day of the week: I'll either be at UCSF or SFSU in class, or I'll be at the UCSF library. I'm at the library right now. I am sitting facing a giant window that looks out over the Sunset, Golden Gate Park, and beyond to the Golden Gate Bridge. The view is absolutely stunning.

I am here to focus, which I have been doing for a good while now. But, now I need a little break, so here I am to update you on my personal progress towards a DPT degree. Firstly, I've thrown out a few acronyms. Allow me to introduce you to some of my new vernacular: UCSF = University of California at San Francisco; SFSU = San Francisco State University; DPT = Doctorate of Physical Therapy. That's right folks, I'll be Dr. Manley soon enough. (Actually, I don't think that I'll ever have anyone call me that, but it's fun to say that I might.)

A.D.D. kicked in here. I think I tried to study again for a while. Then I left.

My weekend schedule ended up looking a lot like this:
Friday afternoon: left school at 5pm, drinks with Megan 6pm
Friday night: passed out by 9:30pm watching a movie
Saturday morning: awake and studying 7:45am - 9am, breakfast 9-10am
Saturday Library study time: 11am - 5pm.
Saturday evening: Dinner out
Sunday morning: date with the NYtimes 9am - 11am, study 11am - 12pm
Sunday afternoon: haircut by Megan :) Frameline film festival movie viewing in the Castro
Sunday evening: Megan labored 2.5 hours making my Mom's lasagna with her homemade sauce while I studied and took a take home quiz.

I mean, I had some time to be human, but that study schedule is a little ridiculous, no?

An Epic Journey, A Modern Quest Part 2

We woke up around dinnertime. If you didn’t know this about me already, you should: I really only take 3 hour naps. And it seems as though it’s rubbed off on Megan. ☺ We awoke rested and rejuvenated, but, unfortunately, it was STILL raining. We went and got dinner at the cafeteria style dining where we recalled events of the day and laughed heartily. Being in Yosemite was refreshing and allowed each of us to truly relax and just enjoy life as it was happening around us. A woman at the table next to us commented: “It’s so nice to hear such joyous laughter!” Did she mean my hyena laugh? Sweet. From there we went to the Ahwahnee Hotel, which is where Megan worked the summer that she stayed at Yosemite. This is one classy hotel. Actually, the juxtaposition it is extremely bizarre to me, this luxurious hotel ($450/room/night minimum) is situated in the valley amidst camping areas and hiking trails and our little tent cabins. Regardless, it was a cool place. The dining room looks like the one at Hogwarts. We ended up in the bar listening to live piano with a glass of port and a slice of cheesecake. That is The Life. Interestingly, when the pianist took a break he came up to chat with us—Megan was wearing a UGA Ultimate hoodie that I sold her (to raise money for my team) and this guy actually had attended school in Atlanta. He ended up chatting it up with us for a little while and talking all about how this was the best poppy season in years, and that we should be sure to take a gander at them on our way home. He loved that we were from San Francisco. On his days off, he usually drives to the city (a mere 4 hours…). Nearing the end of our drinks and dessert we heard rumors of a weather change: snow in the morning in the valley. The last thing we wanted was to be stuck there and miss work on Monday—that happened on our trip to Atlanta just a few weeks ago! The report said snow would fall in the valley around 11 am Sunday morning—though the concierge seemed a little skeptical about the report, he thought that it would fall sooner. We left the hotel and realized that the temperature had dropped significantly, and, not to worry, it was STILL raining. At this point it was dark. Megan and I briefly entertained the idea of driving home that evening, but then realized that would be more ridiculous and more dangerous. So we played a round of cribbage—no skunking! And then we fell asleep.

I awoke confused around 4 am. I could not figure out why I had woken up. I lay there for a few minutes, and then I heard an odd sound: no loud rain drops, instead soft ones—hardly raindrops at all! Then I heard the sound that must have caught my attention despite my sleeping: a loud sliding sound from our canvas roof down the side of the canvas walls. Megan awoke. I realized that it must be snow! I announced my revelation, and together we layered ourselves and cautiously opened the door. At 4 am, everything was already dusted in 2-3 inches of snow. Megan groaned with disappointment (she feared getting home) while I laughed with glee! I love snow!!! We decided to venture to the bathroom, potentially the other reason that we both awoke. It was gorgeous; the snow was still coming down full force. We had planned to get up early to miss the mini blizzard, but clearly that was no longer possible. I turned off my alarm and we settled back into our sleeping bags comfortably. Around 9 am people around us started stirring. I was so anxious to see how much snow had fallen; Megan was anxious as well, but in an entirely different way. I opened the door to discover a good 4-5 inches on our stairs, and we were under tree cover. A good 6-8 inches had probably fallen! In the bathroom, I managed to wash my hairs and dry my face, but Megan had already sprinted (so it seemed) back to the tent to begin packing up. By the time I got there, she was headed out the door to investigate the car. I packed up most of the rest of our things and ventured to the car. I got there and found that my car had a high and tight haircut, but Megan was nowhere to be found. So, I took out my camera and started enjoying the scene. The snow was coming down full-force. I got my camera out just in time as Megan came back with the last load from the tent.






She didn’t even consider breakfast as we headed for the park entrance. I made her slow down for a few shots though. I have several more pictures that I took with my SLR, but I have yet to get those developed. As we approached the park exit, we saw a ranger vehicle, and we saw the sign: “Chains Required or Snow Tires and 4-Wheel drive OK”. We rolled down the window and he explained that we would have to go back to the “garage” to buy chains and have them installed before we would be allowed to leave. I loved the excitement of it all. Plus, Megan had rushed and not allowed me to enjoy the snow as much as I wanted, but now there was little excuse—we weren’t going to get anywhere fast. There was a line to buy chains. $70 later, we decided to skip the installation and get some breakfast—we were both getting grumpy from a lack of food. Not to worry! Yosemite comes through again with some amazing Velvetta croissant sandwich thingies that nearly cause Megan to barf. It’s been such a lovely morning for her…

We finished up and headed back to the garage to get the chains installed on my tires. Unfortunately, the line was long—and extremely slow moving. Here is a little video I took as we were waiting.
Clearly, it was snowing still. However, the longer we waited, the more the sky was clearing! This was great for my picture taking and the ability to see how gorgeous Yosemite could be! As the last car in line for the installation process, we finally got into the garage. They hiked up the car and then closed the garage door behind my car—this made the very clear statement that was being echoed by the clear sky: no more chains would be necessary in order to drive out of the park. Grr…luckily (maybe this isn’t really the right term) we had another problem: my car smelled like gasoline. It was bad. Anytime you turned on the ventilation system (to, you know, defrost the windshield) it stunk! While waiting in line we had determined that it was better to be cold than to inhale those fumes. Bummer. They popped the hood and poked around a little bit, but nothing could be found EXCEPT: a multitude of ants. They are potentially the reason that Megan and I have been discovering little bites on our bodies lately—Side note: Megan and I have been continually waking up with bug bites. At first we thought it was her bed. So we stayed at my place for a couple days in a row, then we thought it was my place. We cleaned. We itched. I realized that I had been finding like one token ant each time I got in my car, but there was by no means any sort of cause for alarm. I mean, I would kill the token one each time so as to reduce the gross factor, but I didn’t notice an infestation. The likelihood that one ant each car ride was managing to bite each of us multiple times on some regular basis is absurd. Or it seemed absurd until this guy popped the hood. Ants were swarming on my battery and on the vents. The good car owner that I am, I closed the hood and haven’t actually thought of it much again since. Well, until yesterday when I got back from driving myself home from the train station: there was an ant on my hand. He had managed to hang on to me for a good while, so it seems that we may have discovered the source of the bites. Back to the story at hand: we shut the hood and vibrated down the street with our new chains. We made it to the park entrance/exit where there was no longer a park ranger, of course. Then we headed down out of the park. After about 3 bumpy miles, we stopped and took the unnecessary chains off. I guess it’s kind of nice that I have them now that we are heading into summer…

The drive home was pretty, though it was longer than either of us wanted it to be. Unfortunately, it was raining a little so the poppies were not out in full force.

All in all, I loved my inaugural Yosemite trip. There are many more adventures to come!