Sunsets and Studying

I have officially been in NOLA for just over a month now. It feels wild to say because it feels like it hasn’t been that long, yet the weeks are flying by. Speaking of time passing quickly, we have our first block exam coming up on Friday! It feels like just yesterday we had our first lecture, and now we’re going to be tested on 3 weeks-worth of material. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but the sheer amount of information we need to remember and apply is insane. I have been studying so much, and I am still so nervous because I don’t know what to expect. Luckily, 189 of my classmates are all in the same boat. Our school is also pass/fail, meaning we just need to hit 70% to pass. That doesn’t change how I am studying, but it makes me feel better that I don’t need to be perfect to succeed. After the exam, our T1 class has its first block party, which is essentially a party (paid for by Tulane) for students to celebrate (or forget about) the exam. I am super excited for this, as I have heard they are super fun, and the whole class lets loose since the grind of studying is on pause before the next block starts. Before we can talk about the next block, though, I still need to survive the rest of this one, so pray for me lol.

Besides studying and attending lectures, I did some pretty cool stuff this week inside and outside of the classroom. On Wednesday, I attended my first Tulane Teaching Kitchen, which is part of our curriculum. Tulane integrates Culinary Medicine into its curriculum to train students about how to support patients in this way. That is yet another reason that drew me to Tulane. As a lover of cooking and baking, it was so fun to get into the kitchen and learn how physicians can teach and guide patients to support their health through cooking. For this particular lesson, we learned how to make tacos (and cooked them) following the Mediterranean Diet guidelines. Intertwined throughout were discussions about how we can meet patients where they’re at with food and cooking.

We also had lessons (and practice) on how to scrub in properly for surgery, and how to take vital sign measurements like blood pressure and respiratory rate on other days this week. It feels so cool to learn these things and know that I will one day use these skills every day in my future career. While cool, it does feel a little intimidating doing these things for the first time. It feels like a lot of my classmates have a lot more experience than me doing actual patient-facing medical things, so I do feel a tad behind, but I am sure these skills will become second nature with practice. With that said, if you or anyone you know is willing to let me take their blood pressure and other vital signs for practice, please reach out lol. I need all the practice I can get as I want to feel more comfortable. Another cool part about the setting in which we learn some of these skills is that we have to wear our white coats during some of the sessions, so I also got to wear my white coat for the first time! Wearing it felt super weird (in a good way). I often catch myself taking it in that this is my reality now- a medical student in NOLA. It feels weird because it’s such a stark difference in what my life was before, so reminding myself that it’s real and actually happening happens daily. I guess after the years of trying to get in, it still just doesn’t feel real, but putting that coat on is a big reminder that it is, in fact, real. I hope the imposter syndrome goes away, though.

We also had another anatomy lab. I definitely felt more comfortable this time since I knew my group a little better, but I still wasn’t as hands-on as most of my peers. I guess that’s still progress, but hopefully, with time, I will feel more enthusiastic and comfortable about the anatomy lab (we’re there like a thousand times this year, so it better happen).

Outside of class, I tried to keep up with the things that make me happy, but time management was a struggle this week. As the material piles on, so does the number of Anki cards you have to review per day, and the other mountain of studying you have to do to orient yourself with all the lectures and information. With that said, I still managed to get a lot done without falling behind, but I recognize that I do need to find an effective strategy to manage my time better. On Monday, I went to a coffee shop to study with some friends. Studying took so long that day that I had to forfeit going to the gym (hence why my time management needs to improve because no movement in a day actually SUCKS). Tuesday evening, I was invited to attend my friend and classmate Orsula’s birthday party. We went to Sukho Thai on Magazine St and had such a great time. I had super yummy Dirty noodles and a slice of the berry Chantilly cake from Whole Foods. It feels really nice to have some solid friends here now, and I feel like I am finally starting to feel more comfortable and like myself down here since finding them. Wednesday evening was spent at a Jewish Medical Student BBQ, where I got to connect with my peers and meet some upper-year Tulane med students. They shared some advice about how to succeed at medical school. Most of them agreed that studying cannot take over your life, and that social and physical activities are just as important, so with that said, I really need to get my time management in order because each day, I feel like I have to sacrifice those parts (or sleep) to study. Thursday night, I finally made it back to the gym and hit a really good upper-body workout. Friday was the same except I hit legs. I then decided to prioritize rest and was about to watch a movie before bed, but the power went out, prompting me to accept defeat and go to bed. Believe it or not, I have not watched anything on my TV since moving here. Maybe next week, I guess. In case you’re wondering, the power outage was due to a crazy thunderstorm. While the power outage sucked, I did see a super interesting view of the sky during the storm from the gym. Photo of the post-storm sky & proof that I lift. below.

Then came the weekend! Saturday morning started with a Tulane spin class, which absolutely kicked my butt. It was a lot different than any of the spin classes I took back home, so maybe that’s why I struggled more than I thought I would. I then spent the rest of the day studying at the Tulane library. The library is 6 floors and super nice! I ran into some classmates there and had a pretty productive social study session. It was fun to study with friends, because little breaks are conversations instead of phone-scrolling. After studying, I made it out to a bar with some other classmates and friends. The bar was ironically called the library, but it was a super cute ski lodge cabin-esque bar with taxidermy on the walls, pool tables, and big comfy chairs. They also were blasting early 2000’s music, making it such an odd but fun vibe. I hung out there for a couple of hours before calling it quits and heading home. Sunday was another study day spent at the actual library (not the bar), with some classmates. I grinded some review and practice questions before heading to pickleball with some other classmates. I played a couple of hours of pickleball and then headed home to prep for the week ahead and write this blog. I caught a super nice sunset after pickleball, which made me happy. NOLA weather is so different than Vancouver, so it’s really cool to see the sky each day and night. The sunsets are so vibrant (I could not tell you about the sunrises yet, as I am not awake to witness those). I will add more photos throughout the weeks as the seasons change.

In order of photos- left is a cool pic I took of campus, moving medially is a pic of the view from the 6th floor library, then a photo of the bar called the library, and finally a photo of the post pickleball sunset.

Well, just like the sun, it’s time for me to set and go to bed. I have another busy week ahead! Thank you again for reading and following along. See you here next week as I write about how my first exam and block party go (only going if I pass), and all the other student-doctor and side quest tasks I get up to.