philly

We ran away from school for several days to go on an adventure in Philly. (Translation: There was a family med conference in Philly where Scotty wanted to run for VP, I wanted to run for Secretary, Trish had to go since she was the president-elect, and Bethany wanted to come for moral support/the conference in general.)

As president-elect, Trish got a free room and travel reimbursement, so Bethany and I bummed room and board off of her. Scotty offered to drive us since he’s a wonderful human being. He even found us a rainbow along the way! (I’ll hopefully obtain all the pictures Bethany and Trish took at some point, but I guess that’ll go in another post. :O ) I didn’t know any of them all that well before this trip, but Scotty decided to set the tone early–what happens in Philly stays in Philly.

On the way to Philly!

We left after student clinic on Wednesday evening and got there somewhere before midnight. One of the things I was most excited for was the fact that the hotel we were staying at was right next to the Reading Terminal, which is pretty much full of any genre of food you could ever want in your life.

Sleeping quarters for me/Bethany. Trish had the other bed. The room was pretty much as big as Bethany’s entire apartment. No free internet though, because that’d make life too convenient. :'(

Bethany and I went there the next morning and had breakfast at the Dutch Eating Place. Trish joined up with us later, but we had to cut our adventures short to attend the conference, since that was technically the reason why we were allowed to skip school to go to Philly in the first place. :x We listened to a lot of lectures and physician panels on the first day and talked to a bunch of different residency programs. I was rather overjoyed to discover that there are actually at least two dually accredited programs in CA. *-*

We went out to McGillin’s Olde Ale House for dinner on Thursday, which is apparently the oldest bar in the city (and possibly the 5th-oldest bar in the country[?]). It was open mic night and the songs one of the guys came up with were pretty hilarious. Somewhat disturbing, but hilarious.

On Friday, there were a couple more panels/lectures and after lunch, we had a “Shotgun OMT for Family Medicine” lab where we learned different techniques for MSK ailments patients would commonly present with and worked with students from other schools to treat each other.

We also had 4 different hands-on labs (sterile techniques, IUD insertion, joint injections + suturing)!

As of 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, I was running unopposed…but the board exploded the next morning and they had more applicants this year for all the positions that they’d ever had before. (Sigh.) I wrote and delivered pretty much my first speech ever; I had to cut down 2 minutes the morning of the elections since there were so many applicants, so that was all sorts of fun. (In case I never mentioned this before, I’m terrified of public speaking and avoid it whenever possible.) I’m glad I made myself do it though. :]

Scotty said he was really proud of me, that my speech was great (which means even more because he apparently used to be a speech coach) and that he couldn’t tell that I was nervous while I was up there. I didn’t win, which was disappointing in the sense that the people elected this year seem really cool and it would’ve been awesome to have the opportunity to work with them. On the flip side, I’m completely okay with not winning for a variety of reasons:

• A good number of people approached me afterward to tell me they’d voted for me and wished that I’d won (and said that I’d given the best speech [of the candidates I’d been running against]! :)
• Scotty won for VP!
• I was nominated to be the head of one of the committees, so I do get to be more involved with the organization despite having to leave the main campus for rotations next year.
• See below!

Trish is the reason why I was so okay with not getting the position. :O Losing meant that I got to spend the day exploring Philly with her! :] Next year’s conference is in Las Vegas, which I have pretty much no desire to explore, so hopefully I will win next year.

We started up a “Philly wishlist” 2 months ago and packed it with a billion places we wanted to visit. (They were all eateries. All of em’. Other than one spice market, but I’m not sure that really counts because it’s technically still food-related.)

She made me a chocolate care package! :D :D! + got me a cast iron grill pan from Target. My life is complete.

After we located each other in the Reading Terminal, we went to:

• Miller’s Twist (Reading Terminal)
• Beiler’s Bakery (Reading Terminal)
• The Head Nut (Reading Terminal)
• Dim Sum Garden
• Franklin Fountain
• Erawan Thai Cuisine

This means that someday, I need to go back so we can go to the Four Seasons Juice Bar, Green Eggs Cafe, Ishkabibble’s, The Spice Market, and Ho Sai Gai. :O …And let’s be real–probably several more places in the Reading Terminal Market.

We wandered around and saw the Liberty Bell as well as the outside of Independence Hall/Congress Hall/the West Wing.

We also acquired a Martha somewhere along the way! :D! (I haven’t seen either of them since we graduated from UMDNJ.)

Our food adventures in collage form!

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san diego (“whale’s vagina”)

Due to a number of really awesome circumstances and a bunch of stars aligning in my favor, I ended up basically being paid to go to San Diego for the fall ACOEP conference in early October. <3 It was awesome. I helped us book plane tickets and we ended up staying at a Motel 6 about 2 miles from the hotel the conference would be in. I’m slightly sad about this because I was all for us staying at the hostel 0.3 miles away, straight-up in downtown and surrounded by glorious eateries…but two of our party were avidly against it because they’d watched Hostel. Neither of them ended up coming. D: sigh. We could have saved a buttload of money and time, but you live and you learn. Next time, I’m just gonna go for it and coerce others to come along with me. :O

I managed to see a friend I haven’t seen since…probably somewhere while we were both in undergrad (we went to elementary school through high school together). She kidnapped me and we went to a intermediate/advanced pole class together at Fun Pole Fitness! :D I haven’t even touched a pole since July, which is pretty ridiculous, considering that I have one in my apartment (albeit currently in pieces and hidden in my closet, but still). It was a good workout, and we learned a lot + had a bunch of fun. :] I was reppin’ my Norcal Pole Posse tank top from Twirly Girls. :D

_{I’m aware that this looks kinda ugly right now, but please know that it’s my second or third attempt. >_> I think she called it the Rico(sp?) Split. I was learning how to turn that into a Cupid.}

Despite “lunch” being listed on the schedule for the start of the conference on Saturday, lunch was not actually provided and of course, that’d be the one and only time I chose not to bring food with me (sigh). By dinnertime, I felt like my insides were eating me and I’d devolved into silence (I get cranky when I’m hungry), so we tried to go to a sushi place downtown that a couple of my friends had suggested, but they were extremely rude, so we opted for a Thai place around the corner (Thai Time!). The food was delicious! :D! (We have no Thai restaurants here, so it’d been a while. :[ ) Pete and Mike ended up matching, right down to the shoes (almost).

There was a social of sorts from 7-9 p.m. where they rented out the entirety of Hennessey’s. Open bar and free food. I think everyone else was most excited for the open bar, but I was overjoyed about the latter. I probably ate the equivalent of 5 dinners while I was there. <3 It was glorious. Pete and I decided to help distinguish between the two of them (top handprints = Pete; bottom handprints = me)

Since we were missing two quizzes (I hate the Exam Center forever and ever,but that’s a whole ‘nother story that I probably shouldn’t get into), we figured  that some studying might be a good idea. D: I found us a coffee shop (LION Coffee :) to study at on Sunday, so we hung out there for a couple hours. I have a new love for acai bowls and would absolutely love to recreate them, but they don’t sell those smoothie packs anywhere near here, so I may have to wait til I get home for winter break.

Med students on vacation. :[

I just realized I don’t have any pictures of our entire group together. They exist somewhere, but I don’t know who has them. :[ In any case, we managed to score tickets to this fancy schmancy gala. They were supposed to be a couple hundred bucks per ticket, so I assumed there was no way in hell we’d be going. As such, I didn’t pack a dress that would work for the occasion with me and ended up having to go buy one (+ shoes…). Sasha and I managed to do some pretty effing efficient shopping though, and we got stuff that’d work for both fancy events + clinic, so hooray for articles of clothing that can multi-task! I even met Ron Burgundy! :P

All in all, it was great getting to escape for 5 days, even though my grades ended up paying dearly for it (once again, thanks a whole bunch, Exam Center). They’ve been salvaged though so it’s a-okay. I didn’t anticipate the conference being so packed full of events though (did I ever mention that the main reason I went was really because it was San Diego?). I didn’t end up getting to go to the beach or the sushi buffet (and a lot of other eateries), but I had a lot of fun anyway.

_{Mike and I watched a sunset together to make ourselves feel better about not having time to go to the beach (those palm trees off in the distance = where the beach was ;_; ).}

We got to do an intubation lab and an ultrasound lab, and I talked to a bunch of residency programs and people who may be really awesome to work with in the future. My not getting to go to these places just means that I’ll have to come back someday, right? :]

Until then, stay classy, San Diego! ;)