2013-12-08

FINALS SEASON I cannot wait to go home again in 1.5 weeks. I know it sounds silly since I was JUST home a week ago, but I really really miss home. I've never thought about leaving California until now. When I was in Jersey, I was happy as a bee. I LOVED NYC (maybe not Newark as much) but I absolutely embraced everything I experienced in that magical place. Yeah, I was also stressed about classes, but I spent a lot of weekends in the city and don't really think about California. Sure, I miss it in the back of my mind, but I REALLY REALLY miss home when I'm in Florida. Maybe it's because of the lack of activities or things to do? Maybe it's hit me that I'll be here for four years instead of just 8 months? Whatever it is, I don't like it. I can't help where I will be and I need to come to terms with it. Now, back to studying for finals. I'm excited for my Europe trip with R in two weeks! My third continent (Asia, North America)!

2013-11-21

I'm going home in ONE DAY! So excited to be back in California and to get my grub on! :D

What a Friday!

Today's Charlie's 13th birthday! I miss him so much and hope he's chasing squirrels and cats happily in doggy heaven right now. It's an understatement when I say I think about him daily and can see him in every dog I see. He is and will be my screen saver on my phone to remind me of the good times. I was just thinking the other day of how my life would be so different if my parents had given him up when we moved cross country from Georgia to California. I feel fortunate to have received his unconditional love and I will pass that on to the shelter dogs I work with weekly. My foster dog, Teco, is leaving today as well. She's going to reunite with her owner, who had to give her up because he wasn't able to take care of her for 3 months. As much as my selfish side want to keep her and make her mine, I've known all along since we got her that this was going to happen. I guess nothing really prepares you for it. She's such a good, obedient, and sweet puppy that it's going to be difficult to say goodbye. In the end, she's going home and I know her owner will treat her well. As if those sad thoughts aren't enough, I received a speeding ticket right after I pulled out from my apartment complex. I haven't decided whether I want to fight it in court or just pay the fine yet. Truth is, no one ever drives 25mph in Florida, especially in a residential area when people just want to get home or go to work. The Deputy Sheriff who caught me probably will have a field day to catch all the folks around. Got tons of reading for PBL to do. There's no time to think/do anything else. I will immerse myself in textbooks to forget and move on. /rant ends HAPPY FRIDAY! I hope yours is going much better than mine.

2013-11-09

week in pictures **********************************************************************************************************************

2013-10-30

Just finished my first PBL exam and boy, what a stressful exam! From not knowing what to study to lacking the motivation to actually study, it's been a crazy two weeks of just stressing. I should take my advice to stop complaining so much and JUST DO IT ALREADY. Instead of prolonging the inevitable, I should have just started studying from somewhere. Today I'm going to re-prioritize my life. All my previous goals have been getting into dschool but now that I'm here, I'm a little lost on what I should achieve now. I don't think I will be very happy simply "passing" my classes, so school is definitely on there. I'm putting exercise back on the table too and I'm going to make sure I take out 45 min - 1 hr each day for it. It'd be a shame to not have a bikini-ready body when it's always beach weather outside. Health is also on the list - making sure I get enough sleep & nutrition. I've been volunteering a lot at the local humane society (2-3x a week; a couple of hours each time). It's so wonderful to see the dogs & cats well taken care of. Recently, two of my favorite pups got adopted and I was so happy to see pictures of them in their new homes. My roommate and I still have Teco, our foster dog from another rescue organization. She's such a good, well-mannered, loving puppy, even though her coloring scares everyone on the streets. Hopefully we'll have her 'til Thanksgiving :) I completed my FIRST SET of dentures on Tuesday but forgot to take a picture. I will post more pictures once they get polished & checked off by the instructor. Also exciting news: R&I are going to London/Amsterdam/Paris from 12/24 to 1/4! Everything's finalized from plane/train tickets, except housing, which we're working on now. I've never been to anywhere besides North America & Asia, so I'm totally psyched to visit a new continent! If you have any traveling/sight seeing suggestions, please let me know! **************************************************************************************

************************************************************************************************ beautiful Lido beach on a random Saturday :) jealous? COME VISIT!

2013-10-19

This week I haven't done much and I purposely did not do much of anything. It looks about as bad as it sounds. I think all the studying and constant cramming has finally caught up with me which led to my week of not studying after I get home. Part of the problem is the new course that we started doesn't have much structure so I'm not motivated to learn...at all. Now I'm about 10 chapters behind and have to catch up by end of this month (before my midterm). I'm beginning to feel stressed and overwhelmed - why did I do this to myself?? On a good note, my roommate and I hosted game night at the apartment and it was a smashing success! Great potluck + fun games = lots of laughter. My week in lab was kind of exciting. We did a final impression off the edentulous cast and put the wax occlusal rims on the maxillary and mandibular trays. Now the next step is to choose shade and color of the teeth and adjust in patient's mouth. We're only working off of stone models, so no patients yet. ***************************************************************************************

*************************************************************************************** I also did my first promotion event today for PCAT. I researched as much as I could about the PharmD programs and how to apply - it's similar to dschool. I've forgotten how tiring it is to speak for about 3 hours straight. I noticed at the end of the presentation my voice was kind of distorted and I begin slurring words >< Oops. Overall, I did the best I could under the short notice I had to cover for this event. Yay for a little side income. It's not much but better than nothing. Lately, I've also been craving chinese food so much. I dream about it and have lost my appetite for any other type of food. I don't know how to describe it but I'm about to drive far for some decent food because I just miss it.

2013-10-13

********************************************************************************************************************** 1. making the final impression for edentulous "patient". ready to pour with stone! ********************************************************************************************************************** 2. found a great little farmer's market close to home. As you can tell, fall is definitely around the corner. I really wanted to buy a pumpkin but also didn't know what to do with one besides carve it and put it outside the door. However, that would attract attention on Halloween, so I'd have to open the door for trick & treaters. I'm not ready to grow up in that aspect yet. :-p ********************************************************************************************************************** 3. I made a fruit salad with all the discounted fruits I bought. So yummy. ********************************************************************************************************************** 4. JT visited Orlando this weekend! I went to Disney world with him & his coworkers. I had a surprisingly great time considering how overwhelmed I felt at the Disneyland in L.A. I might even go back again...the food & wine festival at the Epcot was very unique. I was pleasantly surprised at all the recreations of landmarks from different countries. I thought they tried really hard to make it as authentic-looking as possible. Plus, there was lots of alcohol at every food stand. My favorite has got to be the CHEESE food stand. The artisan cheese plate was absolutely delicious with the simple wine. I had forgotten how good cheese & wine tasted until this experience. Overall, though my Saturday was 20 hours long (commute, park, transportation), I had a wonderful time catching up with an old friend and enjoyed Disney world for the first time since I was a little kid. ********************************************************************************************************************** 5. Splash Mountain. Enough said. ********************************************************************************************************************** I shall now study for my Monday's quiz. Hmmm what a good weekend! This will probably be my most exciting weekend in October. My next great carefree weekend will be in November when my UMDNJ friend interviews.

2013-10-08 My week in pictures

**************************************************************************************************************** -Ringling Museum of Art on Smithsonian Free Museum Day It's absolutely gorgeous!! -Teco Taco -starting edentulous (NO TEETH) dentures! I mounted my mandibular and maxillary casts. Now await further instructions -Banana and blueberry pancakes yum

2013-09-23

MY WEEK IN PICTURES

Tried to make my mom's famous soup...it turned out pretty good actually! This whole pot fed me for a good three days. I was a very happy camper

Also, I extremely missed Charlie this week. So I signed up to volunteer at the local animal shelter and met this little pug. Isn't she the cutest roundest little thing?

Happy mid-autumn festival!! I ate substitute moon cakes because the Asian store in Tampa ran out of moon cakes. Pad thai + roast duck = one happy me!

Randy visited this weekend! We went to Busch Gardens on Friday and Dali Museum in St. Petersburg on Saturday. He also fixed my door that was chewed up by Scout as well as a few more things around my apartment. =) I'm now a very happy tenant.

Lastly, meet my new foster Teco! She's a Shar Pei/ Pitbull mix (potentially?) and she reminds me so much of Charlie. Very food driven and loves to play tug'n war. Hopefully when we leave her tomorrow, she will behave and not poop/pee in the house. *********************************************************************************************************** I've actually had a pretty stressful week in terms of school. Finished my gross anatomy final and a dental anatomy quiz. I'm excited to finish dental anatomy this coming week and start on restorative dentures. I also started Kaplan training for online TAing - it's really nice because I don't have to travel anywhere and can "teach" a class in the comfort of my home. I really just help the teacher who is actually on camera/mic while I'm off camera and on the sidelines. Yay for extra income.

2013-09-14

We made models of our teeth this week in school. It was a difficult because this was the first time we worked on another person with taking impressions and pouring stone. It's really interesting to see your actual set of teeth and how your teeth occlude together. We didn't have any tests this week, which was great! But we are nearing the end of our courses, so there's a bunch of finals coming up. >< I'm applying to the National Hispanic Health Association scholarship. When I first received it, I thought, "oh, well I do work with a lot of underserved Hispanic population" so I was excited to apply to it. But then somewhere along the way, I talked myself out of it by thoughts like "I'm not hispanic; I don't know much about it". Another classmate reminded me of the deadline that's coming up and I finally decided to just go for it. There's nothing stopping me except myself, so I'm going to apply for it. We'll see what happens. This week's also the one year anniversary of Charlie's passing. I've been feeling weird all week and I figured this is probably why. It also made me really want to adopt a dog, which is a very impractical thought. I can probably care for one, but not the extent the dog needs, since I spend so long at school and studying in general. So in honor of Charlie, I put in an application to volunteer at the local animal rescue shelter. I saw a German Shepherd mix that looks so much like Charlie and went to see her; Too bad, she's already adopted since she's so adorable.

Funny picture sent from my mom: Dad: "Come here!" Marc: "NO!"

And my attempt at Tom Yum soup

2013-09-06

One of my wise classmates said, "dental school is just like final's week. Except it's final's week EVERY WEEK." With that said, I'm done with my exams for the week! In sim clinic, we took alginate impressions on each other and created a mold. I will upload pictures once I mount it with the proper alignment of my jaw next week. I also worked on composite and amalgam restorations (aka fillings) on the posterior teeth. It was really cool to work with my hand pieces again and drill into teeth. I'm beginning to realize what a different 1mm makes..between enamel&dentin to dentin&pulp. Look at my fillings on the maxillary & mandibular second molars. My amalgam didn't turn out as great because I overcontoured it and I didn't burnish (make it shiny) it at this point. After our exams, a few of my classmates hosted a korean bbq night. It was a smashing success (surprisingly, since everyone was so tired after a 12 hour day) and we continued the night playing card games and reminiscing about our college days. This weekend will be a lot of catching up on sleep and reading for next week. I think I'll update this blog mostly on Fridays and Sundays when I have a bit of free time. Special thanks to Dmitriy for making my week with a care package! :) :) :)

dental school: a new beginning

Wow, it's been awhile since I've written anything...well, I'm finally in dental school (YAY!) It's been a long journey after graduating Berkeley but it feels good to make it here. I've had a wonderful year in NJ completing my Masters and now comes the fun part of studying nonstop all day everyday. I actually really like my program because we do have a lot of free time. Unfortunately, most of that free time is spent at the school's library or starbucks. It still feels a bit surreal sometimes that I'm actually in Florida working on teeth. I'm blown away by the amount of information I'm learning. Who knew teeth was actually complicated? :X I've been in school for two months now and I feel like I'm just starting to get the hang of it. We've just been drawing teeth in sim clinic for the past month, now finally moving on to some composite/amalgam restorations. We're going to be making impressions on each other this Thursday so I'm excited to see what my teeth actually looks like. I'm going to document my dental school journey here. Yay for new beginnings!