First Exam

Today was our first exam in Histology. It was a 65 questions, multiple-choice, and pretty tricky. They had the answer key on the school's database (the DCDB) in an hour or two. Unfortunately I can't figure out my grade until I see the stats on the rest of the AMP and first-year med students. AMP students are graded according to what percentage of the med school students they scored in. I think you have to score in the top 20% to get an A.

The fun part of your fist histo test is that upon its completion the second years get together and buy beer for the first years' immediate consumption. The second years are really into it, and even sent out a cute little powerpoint detailing the history of this lovely gesture:

Last week my mother came to visit, which meant I could use her rental car to drive around and actually buy some furniture. It all came from a combination of craigslist and Target. We wound up having to rent a truck from the Home Depot to carry a dresser I bought to campus. They charge ~$20/75 minutes.

I live on the second floor so getting the dresser into my bedroom was difficult. It was way too heavy for me, but I couldn't reach any of my friends on campus. At one point a med student with burly arms walked by. I ran after him to ask for help, yelling, "YOU WITH THE ARMS!" but he drove off before he heard me/ignored me until he could get to his car. Eventually the super was able to help me out.

I spent most of last weekend cramming for the histo test, but I spent one day visiting in New York. I got cheap tickets for Spring Awakening from TKTS. I had a lot of problems with the story, but the music is still in my head and it was great to see people from undergrad.

Transportation

This morning I walked about a mile to get to Mass (Holy Rosary). It was nice, lots of families, tons of firefighters for some reason. It wasn't too hard to get there, but it still made me anxious to get a car. I wouldn't say that a car is absolutely necessary, since I have a nice roommate who drives me to the grocery store/train station, but life would be MUCH harder this year if my parents weren't driving my grandmother's old car across the country for me to use. I can only ask my roomie to shuttle me around for so long before it'll strain the relationship.

Public transportation is available. One AMP student lives off campus and takes the bus every day, but nothing beats being able to go directly to the store to get some Nutella when you're feeling blue.

My mother's going to visit this week. She's done getting my sister set up for her first year at MIT, and I'm looking forward to using her rental to get some furniture. I've been here close to a month and all I have are a bed, lamp, and a floordrobe. My roommate's a fan of IKEA, but I'm sticking to craigslist. Slightly more sketchy, a lot more cheap. But no meatballs :(

You know what else I haven't procured in a month at NYMC? Nerd friends! Where my nerds at? I'm getting desperate. If I don't find someone to watch anime/sing Broadway/make LOST theories with soon I'm going to start "accidentally" planting specific links in the group emails.