Holidays take one

Our first attempt at a holiday far away from our families went quite well. Yeah, we missed our families, but we did well for ourselves. We ate too much, but not as much as we would've had we gone home. We played video games, hung out with people, and basically went about life as if I were not in medical school...aside from the random bit of studying, that is. It was strange to go to school and study, which I did (only because Husband had to work) and then come home and not have to study anymore. Instead, we could do, y'know, other things. Like watch a lot of "Doctor Who" or "Psych."

We're gearing up for the third round of exams (holy shit, right?) and I finally bit the bullet and bought another biochemistry book on the grounds that our teacher isn't teaching me biochemistry, so someone sure has to, and it looks like it's going to be me. Right now, I am surrounded by anatomy texts and biochemistry texts.

Have you ever seen a picture of the gall bladder? They always color it green. I thought this was just a color convention, sort of like how carbon is always black in organic chemistry.

It's not.

So I just did the nuttiest thing that I've done in a while. I cut my hair. Like, a lot. Now, it wasn't super long to begin with; chin length has been the standard for about three years now. For the past month or so, I'd been toying with the idea of shorter hair still. So tonight, I went to the salon, sat in the chair, and watched as my hair got progressively shorter.

I have no idea if I like it. I'm not sure that I'll know for a week or so. It's dramatically different from anything that I've ever had before.

Hopefully I don't look too retarded. Back to studying histology and watching The Daily Show.

And how do you like that the nuttiest thing that I've done in a while is cut my hair?

Five months out

I have officially lived on the east coast for five months. This is a strange feeling, because it both feels like it's been less time and more time. It feels like ages since I've seen some of my family although I know I've gone five months without seeing them before. I think the strangeness has to do with the fact that I'm unable to hop in my car and drive home in two hours. I can, however, do that with Bangor. Let me tell you, I'm not driving to and from Bangor in one day again. That was a lot of driving.

Since I've lived here, I've learned some strange things, interesting things. Many have little or nothing to do with medicine (thank God, a break is good).

1. Lobster roll is essentially a tuna sandwich with lobster instead of tuna. I don't get what's so good about it, but the locals go nuts. Maybe they really like mayonnaise.
2. Aroostock county, otherwise known as the Alabama of New England, is generally referred to as "the county." Apparently everyone but me knows what they're talking about.
3. "The City" refers to New York city. Always. No exceptions. Unless you're in Quebec. Then it might refer to Montreal.
4. There are two New Yorks. New York City is a completely different animal than New York State, something that you'll see rather quickly when talking to people from upstate.
5. Boston is south of where I live, yet people inexplicably say that they're "going up" to Boston. I think it has something to do with trade winds.
6. Part of Maine is called "Downeast." This is not the part of Maine that is furthest southeast. It's actually north. Somehow.
7. Being bilingual here is a good thing, but it's helpful to know French rather than Spanish.
8. Moose regularly cross the highway, to the extent that there are actually "Moose Xing" signs. No, really.
9. When talking about New Jersey, people tend to drop the "New."