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.