Snow! lots of it!

Philadelphia doesn't really get all that much snow in a season. There's maybe one huge storm that dumps a few inches of the fluffy white stuff. But this season, we had a huge storm before winter break that dumped 22" in the course of 1 day! It was kind of insane and I drove around in it because my friends and I decided to spend the day at another friend's house in the city, we live in the burbs. That was the night my bumper fell off, yes, it fell off. I tucked it in the trunk and zip tied it back on when I got home. Anyway that's another story.

Last weekend there was another huge storm that dumped about 18" of snow! That set new records. I didn't go out driving this time, in fact people got tickets when they got caught driving out in the snow. It was nuts! Nothing was running for about a day and a half, no trains, no buses, no nothing. Clicky the pictures for more of said storm:




Devastating aftermath:


Tomorrow, is the start of another potential doozy, that would be another huge snow storm if you've zoned off the past couple paragraphs. If you doubt the seriousness of such a storm, see here. Looks like we'll have to put a hold on the snowman making!

By the way

UPDATE: 56" total so far, record=65" in 1995-96

spaghetti with meat sauce...

...is possibly my most favorite dish to eat ever! It started with my mom's spaghetti sauce and then it evolved to my own, over-seasoned sauce both of which I loved and can eat tons of in one sitting if it didn't go directly to my hips! So I'm sitting here thinking while not studying, how can I make the sauce differently, with more oomph? Well I thought of the meat, I've tried using 3 types of ground meat (beef, lamb and pork) and it tasted good. So then I moved on to another favorite, chorizo. I realized that chorizo is seasoned ground meat in pig intestines and I could use it to make spaghetti sauce that has a latin infusions! Imagine, chorizo, anato seeds, fajita seasonings, taco seasonings infused into homemade red sauce!

My next goal, stay tuned!

The Late Christmas Poem that was sent on time!

I sent this to most people on Christmas day, but I thought I'd post it here now so that Christmas may someday be extended into January................

GOOD MORNING!

I was going to do this over mass text message and single handedly max out my monthly text messaging limit in one fell swoop (that's how much I care about you guys, nevermind the impersonal nature of mass text messages!). But then i found out that you can only mass text to a maximum of 8 people. So I refused to compartmentalize my friendships into groups of 8 because, well, that's just not right, it's also a royal pain! So here's your annual Christmas Morning Greetings and I'd like to do it in song, without the song part, so just the lyrics I guess, well then that just makes it a poem doesn't it, so your Annual Christmas Morning Greetings Poem!

May your Christmas be Joyous
With lots of love and singing
Let your voices ring in chorus
And the tree lights agleamin'

May your gift-giving and present-receiving be merry
And the wrappings impressive
Most importantly, may your presents be very EXPENSIVE!
(Optionally, In $$$ or in Love)

May your wishes come true
And your bellies be full
If your family drives you up the wazoo
Just remember you'll soon be back at school


Alright yo, I'm tired of trying to rhyme, it's too early! Sorry if that wasn't relateable to some of you, but rhyming is damn hard, so deal! And to close it up, here's a picture of a Christmas Cat. Yes it's an ages old tradition that we've all somehow missed...

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year

Sorry for the lack of updates. Not much to update really, just studying lots and other life stuff. Went back home for 2 weeks for break and got to see my pops. I hung out with him, mostly ate and saw movies. He loves the new place, although there might be some thievery problem. I can't make out if it's him losing his stuff or people stealing stuff. It'll be cleared up with time hopefully. I saw friends and it was not nearly enough time to see everyone I wanted to see.

I got a new camera so I'm posting pictures up on my web photo album. It's at: http://picasaweb.google.com/henrysiem. I update that more often than I do this because, well, pictures do speak a thousand words. Although some actual words can help too once in a while.

So I'm finishing up my second block, we've got 4 this year. Another 10 weeks and we start our primary care practicum, more on that in another post. We've got an exam next week and also our individual process assessments where we prove that we can think logically, come up with hypothesis, find data and ask questions that will lead us to supporting our hypos. We get a paper case that says person A has a problem and here are their lab values. We have to think up hypotheses and come up with issues to research. We come back 24 hrs later and present to a member of the faculty our findings and our support for the hypothesis. It's supposed to be fun and I'm a little bit excited to do it! It's the first time that we'll be independently working towards a diagnosis!

Spring break is in 6 weeks and me and 2 of my friends just bought tickets to go to Nicaragua. In case you're wondering where that is, it is in Central America just north of Costa Rica near the Central-South American border. It is a land of lakes and volcanoes and it is also the poorest country in latin america, making it one cheap travel destination. We're hoping to have a relaxing 1 week lying on the beach and swinging from the tree tops, fitting in volcano surfing in between!

I have a physical examination to do on 2 standardized patients tomorrow. It's our first time touching other people besides ourselves. It should be fun and exciting!

update

Sorry for the lack of updates. I spent Thanksgiving in Philly with a bunch of very great friends. We cooked a Thanksgiving dinner that was more delicious than any thanksgiving dinners I've had before, and I've had...15... OK not as experienced as other diners, but it was good. I made mac and cheese and we had rosemary bacon wrapped turkey, green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and pumpkin and apple pies. It was so delicious. Then I caught up with an old friend on friday and my thanksgiving friends went to NYC Saturday and Sunday. I spent way too much money and flirted way more than is considered appropriate I guess. But it was really fun! Driving in NYC is a different experience. It's a city where turn signals are optional and you change lanes whenever there's a space and you do it with gusto or people will honk you to death. It was GREAT!

So we finished gross anatomy end of October. We ended it with a disection of the head starting with decapitation and then cutting it in half, front to back, a cut on the midsagittal plane. Gruesome to some, another day in gross lab to us. I haven't been back in gross lab, but I hear our cadavers are still there. We're supposed to give them a nice send off at the end of the year. After gross, we had neuroscience for a month and now we're on physiology for another month.

The other day we had a lumbar puncture demo and I got to do an LP on a simulator dummy. It was really fun. I use to not care about doing procedures or giving shots, but the skill required for LP made it really fun. I'll be going into the simulation lab tomorrow to try to save a patient with heart problems from dying. We'll be working with a full sized dummy. It's the first time the simulation center will be used, it's brand new, just completed last month!

Anyways, I'll hopefully be coming home later in the month, I haven't bought plane tickets yet. Still hoping they'll fall in price! I'm shorting plane tickets HA!

Chinatown clinic

So yesterday was an interesting day at clinic. The usual suspects were mostly not present because of exams and other things going on. So it was just me and another girl who were the "veterans." It was pretty hectic with a lot of people coming in for flu shots and a ton of 3rd years, very few mandarin speakers and a lot of indonesian speakers. That's usually a good thing, but there was a majority of mandarin speakers yesterday coming in for the flu shot so we were short interpreters. I took charge of the front desk and helped coordinate where everybody should be going and what they should be doing. So I was running around half the night, juggling a dozen different things and I loved it. I may be exaggerating slightly. It was exciting and the night passed quickly. I had such a good time I sort of wish every night was like that. I guess I got a taste of a little power and am loving it. But that's the nice thing with Chinatown Clinic, it's the ONLY Drexel clinic that's entirely student run. Students get the supplies, students run the clinic every Wednesday, students see patients, students draw blood, students do EVERYTHING.

There's a change in leadership at the clinic each time a 2nd year passes on to 3rd year and they're not able to maintain a regular commitment to the clinic. At that time, responsibility falls to the incoming 1st years and new 2nd years. All I know is there's a lot to learn about the clinic and we're not exactly in an open sharing environment, meaning we have to ask for the info, otherwise they're not given.

I'm pretty excited about taking on more responsibility at the clinic. Clinic's probably pretty high up on the list of things that are fun about med school, next to friends, fun and food. The 3 F's of med school.

Sold my car and my motorcycle

I've sold my S2000 and my motorcycle. The car went to my friend and the bike went to a friend of a friend. I will miss them, my car most of all, it was my first car and the best mistake I've ever made.

It's a very sad day for me, although my friend said I can buy the car from him later on, but hey I gotta look on the bright side...now I can eat! Just kidding...sort of