"I want it all, that's why I strive for it"

Week in and week out the weekends always feel like it'll never come. Yet, looking back time continues to keep flying by. It's been 2 weeks since I updated this so I'll do my best to include the details. The week following my last post was our first truly "intense" week in my opinion. We had a waxing competency on what is arguably the hardest aesthetic tooth to wax on Monday. Then we had a final that Friday in a class that is very important for the national boards that we will be taking next year. Between the two exams and bouncing around like a pin ball as the class president on top of taking care of personal stuff I stayed pretty busy. I won't complain though because the saying goes, "if you need something done, give the task to a busy man" and I enjoy being occupied. Aside from the meetings and altering our class schedule when it needs it, the job hasn't been all that bad. This last week we started a semi clean slate so I plan on getting the fundraising started. Each class is responsible for raising $1500 a year in order to have a combined $10,000 for our senior banquet. Sounds like a lot huh?

This past week was a semi brand new week for my class. We dropped a class (the one we took our final in) and picked up 2 more. So our current schedule now consists of 5 classes: Outreach Preventative Dentistry (for our sealant's program), Dental Anatomy, Preventative Periodontics, Oral Histology, and Heart and Lung in Health and Disease. The latter two are the newest edition. Heart and Lung anatomy so far is very Latin intensive and as detailed as it gets about well... heart and lung anatomy!,..as well as the ENTIRE thorax. We have our first lecture in Oral Histology this coming week so my next post will talk more about that later. In just 2 months, we have a very good understanding about most of the mouth: the gums and teeth, the development and eruption stages, central occlusion; we can also place sealants and are on our way to being able to perform prophys (cleanings, for the lamen). Its pretty exciting since we've learned so much but we still have a VERY long way to go. I can't wait to learn how to drill :-P We ended this week by learning how to take a patients blood pressure with a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff and how to do an oral cancer screening. 

On to my personal life, I've learned a few things about Cleveland. If I haven't mentioned this before the driving is TERRIBLE! People here have no respect for a red light and an intersection. You would be surprised to see how many cars go through blatantly red lights!!! I'd say 1 in 2 people go straight through it or have the nose of their car in on coming traffic. It makes me very hesitant to purchase a car out here. Also, imagine your driving down a 2 lane road on your way to the grocery store. Your in the outside lane and you notice there's a car parked in this lane against the curb.... WAIT WHAT??? In Cleveland, you can park your car on the side of the road on a busy street. In MOST places their is a separate "lane" for metered parking.. here its just in the driving lane. Aside from the hazardous driving, there are some very pretty places to visit. 

Regan and I have kept our weekends exciting by exploring the outdoors around here. We went to the beach last weekend and it was lots of fun. Its amazing because on the great lakes, the lake is so big that looking out on to the lake is just like looking out into the ocean. Weird right? We also checked out the local science center which included a wild life rehabilitation center so that was cool. Lots of animals up close and personal for free. We witnessed a massive turtle attempt to climb over its pen, fall over on its back side. It was comical.. but we had to help it over or it would have probably died there looking up towards the sky. Lastly, my school offered a free concert to its students for our Homecoming/Alumni Weekend. The band that performed was the Goo Goo Dolls. I felt so old at that concert when I realized that I knew most the songs and bc I was 11 (1998) when they released their hit single, "Iris", from The City of Angels. The pre-concert stuff was pretty cool/nerdy. The cool part was that they had free refreshments and snacks which included tiramisu, fudge bars, fruit, cheese & crackers, coffee, peach champagne (pretty snazzzzzyyy) but along the walls were exhibits. These weren't your average exhibits though.... most of them were in research like nanotechnology for medical advancements, and medical manicans that simulate real emergency situations for students.. to each their own? The school I attend is known nationally, and globally as one of the best research institutions and one of the better undergraduate universities (not to mention its phenominal graduate programs ;-)) 

But that's enough for now. Tomorrow I have a very intense final in Dental Anatomy which won't be an easy grade. Our professor writes questions for the National Boards so she is relentless. I feel very confident that I will do well but I need to get my beauty sleep. Have a fantastic week, thanks for reading! Ciao ;)