December!

Hey folks!

I know I always say this but I can not believe this semester is already coming to an end. We have one more exam to go for Principles and we are done for this semester. I am super excited to go home and visit my family.

This month, I volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and participated in an open garden day at Langston Hughes Academy. With Habitat for Humanity, we spent all day placing the window frames. I also assisted in measuring the sides of the windows and cutting the pieces into the correct shape and form. It was a lot of manual labor and I have never done anything like this before but we accomplished a lot during the day. We also had a great at time at open garden day.

December hours: 12 hours
Total hours: 33.5 hours

Almost the end!!!

Hello everyone,

I can not believe that we are almost done with this semester. We completed our last exam for med pharmacology and molecular/cellular course. Molecular was my least favorite subject so I am so relieved that we are done with it but we still have 1 more exam to go for principles and then off to WINTER BREAK!!!!!! I did not go back to Maryland for thanksgiving break so I am really excited to go home for Christmas and spend us time with my family.

This month, I continued going to KIPP. We helped to carry desks and chairs around the school. We were introduced to a lot of faculty members who might need our help in the future. In addition to KIPP, I also volunteered with SoulNola to plant some trees in a neighborhood. It was very self rewarding. I planted 3 trees with my friend but as a group we planted 99 trees. SoulNola conducts a lot of tree planting events so I definitely plan to sign up for more events in the future. I am also
volunteering with Habitat for Humanity this coming Saturday. I look forward to participating in both events.

October Hours: 6.5
Total Hours: 21.5

October

Hello folks! 

In the month of October I continued my volunteering activities at KIPP Leadership Academy.  As I mentioned in my September blog our role as volunteers are limited to administrative tasks. I continued to update data on the school’s online website. We had to sort through the applications filled out by the parents and enter the information online. I will continue going to KIPP till the end of this semester.  Similarly, I have committed to a couple of other volunteering opportunities for the month of November. I am participating next weekend with SoulNola help plant trees. I think our goal as a group is to plant 100 trees so I definitely need to work hard and plant as many trees as possible. 

I also went home this month for couple of days. I wanted to surprise my niece for her 12^th birthday.  It was a last minute decision and it was pretty hectic but I am so glad I went to celebrate her birthday. Her excitement and the huge beautiful smile in her face made everything worth it.  It is also my birthday month!!! I spent it with my family last weekend and I am driving down to Pensicola beach next weekend to continue the celebration!! 

October hours: 6

Total hours: 15

September!

I am enjoying the weather! I think today was almost 100 F but weather here is much better than what we experience down in Maryland. My dad was saying how he has already started wearing sweaters and scarves and I am glad I am not in Maryland right now.

We finished Renal block last week and we are currently in Pulmonary and Inflammation block. We are learning a lot of material in a short period of time. It can be hectic at times but studying with my friends has definitely made learning for me less stressful.

Outside of class, I have started volunteering at KIPP Leadership academy. My experience here has not been what I had expected. I assist the school administrators by updating students' profiles and entering data on their website. Honestly I thought I would be more involved with the students by tutoring them during class period or after school. I wanted to make a direct impact on the students lives. However I have committed to this work and I will continue to go to KIPP and help the staff in every way I can. I am also looking around for more volunteering opportunities in other schools that might need tutors to come in few days a week.

My first intramural volleyball game starts this Monday. I am beyond excited since I have never played any sport in my life. Our team's name is beta blockers and our team color is blue. I ordered my blue t-shirt last week and I cannot wait to wear it this Monday.

Honestly, I am having an amazing time here with my cousins and my friends. However, today was Dashain, most auspicious festival for Nepalese and I really missed celebrating Dashain with my parents and  my brother. I wish I could have visited them this weekend but nonetheless I am thankful to have family here as well.

September hours: 9
Total hours: 9

My first Blog!!!

I am really excited to write my first blog and share my experiences of living in New Orleans. My cousins and my 3-year-old nephew live here so I have been visiting this beautiful place every summer since my nephew was born. I currently stay with them and it is comforting to stay with family. They are very supportive and have made my move to a new place much easier than I could have ever imagined.

I cannot believe that it has already been 2 months since I packed my bags and drove 20 hour from Maryland to start this program. We just finished our second block exam. I was overwhelmed with the amount of information we needed to know for this block. There were so many drugs we had to memorize and understand including their side effects and their interactions with other drugs. This program has taught me to stay ahead of the game and that there is no room for procrastination. I have also met some wonderful people in this program who I now consider my friends and I would not have been able to survive this block exam without their help.

In addition, I am very glad that this program requires us to perform community service. I think it is very pertinent to include community work with academics.  I will start volunteering at KIPP Leadership Academy tomorrow. I also signed up to play intramural volleyball and I think it starts in a month. I have never played any sport in my life so I am a bit nervous but excited at the same time to try something new. I have been trying to be fit for a long time so I think this is a good start.

Lastly, I EAT MEAT NOW!!! I was a vegetarian for the past 7 months. Every time I went out with my friends and family it was really difficult to ignore the meat and seafood options in NOLA. I finally gave up being a vegetarian last week and started eating chicken again. I have been eating chicken for lunch and dinner everyday. Life is good.