I'm back!  India was awesome. 

I tried to teach small children English.

in the Himalayas (this is my drive to "work")

where the Dalai Lama lives

We went sightseeing later, and saw the Golden Temple (holiest sight for Sikhs)

and, of course, the Taj Mahal

We braved the crowded streets

 rode an elephant

almost had a head on collision w/ a camel cart

and saw cows EVERYWHERE

I'll try to figure out a way to put all of my pics online for anyone interested (maybe snapfish?)  Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.  Namaste!

Alright, I suppose if I'm tagged, I can play along =)

Four jobs you've had in your life: 1. Substitute teacher for Memphis City Schools 2. Camp Nakanawa Counselor (archery and riflery instructor) 3. summer intern in a molecular biology lab 4. worked in the Vanderbilt computer lab, doing...well...nothing Four movies you could watch over and over: 1. O Brother, Where Art Thou 2. Princess Bride 3. Blues Brothers 4. Pirates of the Carribean Four TV shows you love to watch: I don't really watch TV shows, but if I did, I'd probably watch... 1. Scrubs 2. Everybody Loves Raymond 3. The Simpsons 4. That 70s Show Four places you have been on vacation: 1. Hawaii 2. New York 3. San Fransisco 4. trip through Europe w/ my high school French club Four websites you visit daily: 1. UT webmail (pretty much hourly) 2. CNN.com 3. BBC.com 4. Xanga, well, almost everyday Four of Your Favorite Foods: 1. any kind of pasta 2. my grandma's chocolate chip cookies 3. cheese, especially in its melted form 4. Tyson chicken patties Four bloggers you are tagging: umm... if you would like to be tagged, consider yourself tagged.

Yes, I haven't posted anything in quite awhile.  I don't think I'm a big fan of putting my life up on the internet, so I will probably not be an avid xanga poster.  However, I figured this posted needed to be done.

I have made a decision.

It's not at all the decision I thought I was going to make, which worries me a bit, and I can't say that I'm now totally at peace with my future vocation or my present situation, but I do feel like I'm doing the right thing.  I'm going back to medical school.

After New Years, I shadowed a family practice doc.  Honestly, I almost passed out the first day, which is incredibly wimpy, b/c family practice doesn't involve any blood or guts.  And I thought, that's it, I'm dropping out, but I couldn't do it.  Leaving school made me feel trapped, b/c if I leave, that's it, there's no second shot at medical school.  As I continued to shadow this doctor, I realized that I really enjoyed it.  As I put more space between me and substitute teaching, I realized that the main reasons I had enjoyed that was that I felt like I was finally contributing something to the world.  That I wasn't greedily feeding my own brain with knowledge and living off my parents, but supporting myself and teaching kids that no one else was going to come in and teach.  I liked being part of the school community,  having everyone know my name, and have people think I was doing a great job.  These are all things that (hopefully) will eventually be true in medicine too - it just takes longer.  I do enjoy the actually teaching too, and I love high school kids, but I think I would get bored with it after a couple of years.

When I got back to Memphis, I decided to "shadow" the AP bio teacher at White Station, to get an idea of what teaching smart kids bio would be like, since I thought that's what I wanted to do.  I was so bored that I left halfway through the day.  I had forgotten how "basic" high school bio is compared to what I've done now, and that I really didn't like a lot of the intro level subject matter.  After I left that school, I went to medical school, and sat in on an immunology class.  I can't remember how much most of y'all know about last year, but I literally flipped out.  I didn't leave medical school so much because I made a conscious decision that I didn't want to be a doctor, but because I was so far over the edge that I was incapable of staying in school.  That's fun to admit, but I feel like without that piece of information, people are very confused about my past year and why I'm doing what I'm doing.  ummm... anyway, so sitting in the medschool class did make me pretty darn nervous, but the material they were convering was so much more interesting than anything they do in high school (to me anyway).  After class, I ran into the one student in the class that I knew - she's from Crossville.  She was very nice, didn't seem to have heard any heinous stories about me, offered to let me sit by her in class and such, etc.  After that, I realized that I would be able to start back in with this class and probably not be too nervous. 

So basically it came down to a choice between something that I was worried would end up being boring and something that I was afraid might stress me out too much.  I decided that in a few years, I would probably really regret having left medical school just b/c I was afraid of it, and that I aught to go back.

Right, so that was probably a much more detailed answer than what y'all were looking for.  I've been back in school about two weeks now, and I'm more convinced it was the right decision.  I asked a Dr. I met last year if I could shadow him now b/c I only have one class to take at the moment and lots of free time.  He usually works in a great clinic for the underprivalidged, but right now he's training in an AIDS clinic so that they can start treating AIDS patients at his clinic.  So I've been shadowing him while he's learning the ropes at the AIDS clinic, and it's been an incredible experience.  The medical science side to it is incredibly fascinating, and the human relations side to it goes much deeper than in most doctor-patient relationships.  They now have medications that, in almost all people, if they will take their meds 100% of the time, the amount of virus in their body will be undetectable and they can live totally healthy lives.  However, this clinic is at the med (lots of pateints without jobs, insurance, etc), and even though TN will make sure any HIV patient has access to their meds, some patients still don't take them.  Most of what I talk with them about is the importance of their meds, and I try to find out what's going on in their lives that prevents them from taking the meds.  It can be pretty frustrating b/c even though these patients have been told they are going to die if they don't take their meds, some of them still don't take them.  Anyway, I feel like I could talk a lot longer about this, but this post is allready super-long, so I'll stop.  Hope all is well in y'all's lives!

Currently Reading D'aulaire's Book of Greek Myths By Ingri D'Aulaire, Edgar Parin D'Aulaire see related

whew.  What a Christmas.  I spent it with a nasty stomach flu.  Went to bed on the 23rd, and didn't do much but be sick until late on the 25th.  It's all good though - didn't have to answer any "so what are you doing with your life" type questions from the family, and my aunt Suzy, who is the real Christmas elf, didn't come until the 26th anyway, so most of our Christmas-ing came once I was feeling at least semi-normal.  Happy holidays to all who might be reading.

Went to visit Ann and Pepe Perron before the holidays - the owners of Camp Nakanawa.  I love the Perrons, and I'm convinced that Pepe is Santa Claus.  I told him that once.  He just laughed (which sounded very much like "Ho Ho Ho.")  Seriously, he knows every kids name at camp, and generally how they're behaving.  He's round and jolly, and he own's a summer camp - a perfect alias.  Aside from the whole Santa thing, I aspire to be like the Perrons when I grow up: hospitable, jolly, full of a love of life and having an inquisitive nature.  Every time I go talk to him, he's terribly excited about the two books he's just read, the nature excursion he went on, the plane he flew, the sports event he attended, etc.  I mean, they get around.  They do cool stuff, and they love it.... and that's in spite of the fact that they both just had surgery.  Anyway, that's my ode to the Perrons.