THE White Coat

It's been a VERY busy last week, so I appreciate all the understanding and support I received from you all last week. (And I promise I will return my phone calls soon...I didn't forget about you!) Now that midterms are over, I feel much better. I survived the week with pretty good grades, and things are looking up now that we are on the downward half of the quarter.

The most exciting thing that happened this week was, of course, the white coat ceremony on Friday. My parents flew in for the weekend to come see it. The ceremony took place in the auditorium and included all the first year students. The white coat ceremony is supposed to symbolize the student becoming a professional and promising to uphold all the ethical and practical standards of clinical medicine. We each had a turn being called up to the stage and given our white coats by the dean and associate dean. Here is a picture of me receiving my coat on stage.

Below is a picture of my roommate and I before the ceremony. She is a first year medical student and also received a white coat.

Afterwards, I was able to take my parents and friend Vicki, who also attended the ceremony, to tour the campus. They were probably the most excited to see the sim clinic and meet "Dexter" first hand. It was neat to show them all the projects I have completed so far and all the different instruments I get to work with every day. I think my dad was also fascinated by the mountain views from our second floor sim clinic and the third floor of the library. Here are a couple pictures from our tour:

Later in the weekend, my parents and I drove over to Scottsdale to explore. I'd heard a lot about the "ritzy" Scottsdale and was surprised to find that it did not live up to it's reputation (in my opinion). I guess I am just not a huge fan of the whole "old wild west" atmosphere and Native American gift shops. There was a nicer, newer area with some shopping near "the waterfront". After visiting several "lakes" and "waterfronts" this weekend, I have realized that people in Arizona have a pretty wide definition of what constitutes a large body of water. As my dad put it, "in Arizona, they'd call a bucket of water a lake"! Maybe I am just spoiled by living next to Lake Michigan my whole life. Anyway, here are a few more pictures from the weekend:

This picture is for my cousin, Amy. As soon as I saw this horse fountain, I thought of you and had to get a picture.

My dad took this picture of the sunset outside of my apartment. Desert sunsets seem to get prettier and prettier.

I should get headed to bed soon, but I wanted to share one more interesting thing that happened this week. Yesterday, we were in the middle of a lecture on the temporomandibular joint, when a kangaroo/aardvark walked into the classroom, gave the professor a hug, and walked out. It was SO random. I think the professor was as surprised as the rest of the class, but played along. Luckily, one of my classmates had his camera handy, and was able to catch it on film.

PS- You all really need to come visit me here. As I'm sure my parents will attest, the weather is wonderfully warm still. I think this week, we will be getting into the upper 90s. For the most part though, it has been gorgeous weather. Our windows have been open all week. The weird thing is that it does not feel like fall though. I am kind of missing some fall activities that are only possible in the midwest: pumpkin farms, apple picking, and corn mazes. Poor Arizona kids...they don't know what it is like to go to the pumpkin farm.

PPS- I saw 5 hot air balloons outside my apartment this morning. It was way cool. I'll try and get some good pictures of them next time.