More Vacation Pictures

Found the camera: pictures are numbered from left to right top to bottom.
Picture 1-One of the Painted Pot geysers
Picture 2-Alpine Slide
Picture 3-The yummiest coffee drink ever. Coffee, amaretto, kahlua, baileys. Can we say calories?
Picture 4-Me and Jake on the balcony of our restaurant.
Picture 5-Jake in front of the Grand Tetons
Picture 6-Another geyser
Picture 7-Me and Jake in front of Morning Glory
Picture 8-Morning Glory
Picture 9-A cool picture in hot springs land
Picture 10-The wolves at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center
Picture 11-Old Faithful

Vacation!

Jake and I just got back from vacation to Idaho Falls, Yellowstone, and Jackson Hole. We had an amazing time. Our first few days were spent with Jake's best friend Britton in Idaho Falls. I got to meet her and her family for the first time. It was such a fun few days. They took us out on their boat one day to go skiing and tubing. It was Jake's first time doing both. The water was freezing, since it's snow runoff from the mountains. Seriously, coldest water ever.

From there, we traveled to West Yellowstone, Montana. We spent the next few days driving around Yellowstone looking for fun wildlife and beautiful scenery. We were lucky enough to see 7 bears, a bunch of bison and elk, and bighorn sheep. We also saw beautiful waterfalls, geysers, hot springs, and of course the amazing mountainous backdrop.

Friday was Jake's 29th birthday! We started out the day at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center where we got to see grizzlies and wolves close up. Then we headed to the Paintpots and walked around looking at more hotsprings. Old Faithful was next, and then I talked Jake into a 3 mile hike to see Morning Glory, supposedly one of the most beautiful hot springs. Then we drove down to Jackson, checked into our hotel, and then went to the Granary for a delicious mountain top dinner! The food and view were amazing.

Saturday we started out with white water rafting down the Snake River. I had rafted the same stretch when I was 13. Needless to say, it wasn't quite as scary this time around. Then we acted like children as we went down the alpine slide! It's a 2500 foot slide that goes down the mountain. Then our vacation was over as we began the trek back to Colorado.

Picture 1- Some of the cracked mud near a hot spring.
Picture 2- Jake working up the courage to jump in the water.
Picture 3-Our first black bear siting. There's a cub too, but you can't see it.
Picture 4-Jake and I in front of the Lower Falls.
Picture 5-Just a cool picture I took.
Picture 6-The hilarious sign warning people not to step off the walkways.

I left the camera in the car, so I'll add more pictures tomorrow, including Morning Glory.

Audition Rotation

I recently finished up my first audition rotation. This is basically a rotation at a program I'm interested in for residency, which means that the entire two weeks was an interview. I went in knowing that I was going to bust my ass in trying to impress them; what I didn't know was that I would fall in love with the program and not mind the busting at all. I rarely looked at the clock. I immediately clicked with the residents. I scrubbed on so many surgeries. I finally learned a one handed knot. My suturing skills improved. They let me deliver a baby (this is a big deal because I barely knew them and other medical students don't get to always do them). They complimented me everyday! I went in on the weekends to impress them some more (this is not a requirement of the rotation). My schedule was hard. I basically came home and slept every night.
Monday- 8:30-7:30
Tuesday- 6-6
Wednesday- 6-6
Thursday 6 am- 8:30 am on Friday morning (yes this is 26 hr shift)
Friday-day off because I took call
Saturday-5- 5
Sunday 5-5
....and so on.

I obviously did a good job because at the end of the rotation the program director told me I did very well, he heard nothing but good things, and that I definitely will be getting an interview in October!!!! I am so excited! I would love to match at this program, but I refuse to get ahead of the game. There are only 3 spots and one of them goes to a male. That leaves me with getting one of two spots. I know I did well, but there are other students who will be rotating through and who will do well. So this was the start of my residency application....there's still a lot that has to happen.

Boards Tomorrow

I'm in my hotel in Philadelphia trying to decide whether I want the time to fly by so that I can get to my dinner with friends tomorrow night or slowly so that I can still run over stuff tonight and get my brain all organized. Anyways, tomorrow is Step 2-PE. For those not versed in medical boards, this test is a practical. I will be seeing 12 standardized patients (they're actors, and unfortunately these are the people starving for money, not like Brad Pitt or someone there like). I get 14 minutes in the room with them to complete a history and physical and then 9 minutes to write up my note. I'm exhausted thinking about it!

So I'm about to head out for the evening....dinner (I'm thinking Chinese), grab some food for breakfast from Whole Foods, do a test drive to the exam location, come back to the hotel, review a few things and hit the hay. If anyone can muster up some good luck vibes and send them my way, I'd be very grateful.

Muah.