Living next to the state fair

So I thought that living next to the fair would be a lot more exciting than it has turned out to be. We thought for sure traffic would be terrible, but it hasn't been. There haven't been any problems with people parking in our community. There haven't even been any interesting characters cutting through CTC. There are a c0uple of benefits for us though. The bus stop got changed for these few weeks, and it is a lot closer than it was before! Also we get a beautiful fireworks display from the comfort of our living room every night. :)

Dental school is still going on. We had our first test on Friday, I managed to pass, but that's about all I can say. It was the hardest test I've ever taken. It took me almost all four hours to take it, and I used to be a fast test taker. Oh well. The TAs all say that the first one is the hardest so hopefully the next two will go better for me and I'll manage a decent grade in the class. Today we looked at the lungs and thorax, tomorrow we look at the heart.

Just one more class left for today- History of dissection and then I'm off to the fair for my second day in a row!

Dental School Week Two

We are well into our second week of dental school. We have only had five total anatomy lecture and labs but we are cruising through the body. I think what we have learned so far is equal to half a semesters worth in undergrad. We have our first test next Friday, yet we have already learned enough information for at least one test, if not two. It is a very overwhelming class.

Today is also our first embryology lecture. I have already taken an embryo class so I am hoping that is beneficial. I guess the professor just zooms right through. So tonight I think I will be diggin out my old embryo notes.

Tomorrow Josh and I are suppose to go to the Twins game with Emily and Eric. I didn't realize it was this week until yesterday. I feel like I shouldn't be going because then I won't have my evening to study the billion things we dissected in lab that day. One day of not studying can really put you behind. This weekend we have another wedding so there won't be much time to study either. Hopefully Josh will quiz me during the drive and then on Sunday I can review in the lab. It will be nice to have a couple of days where we are not learning new material, just trying to remember everything that we have seen so far.

Yesterday Josh finally got his new computer up and running and actually played his Everquest game. yeah rah. We went and bought a new desk, one that is big enough for both of our computers. It took Josh like 4 hours to put it together, but it looks really nice.

First day of classes

Classes started this morning at 8am with gross anatomy lecture. It is a huge class. I'm pretty sure it is larger than any class I took at CSS (and there are only medical and dental students in it). It is going to be a hard class, lots of studying and lots of time in the cadaver lab. I am glad this is our only class for the next 7 weeks or so.

I also had oral anatomy today, but all we did was hand in our jar of teeth that we collected. No biggie. I was also able to meet my body buddies while we were in oral anat.

We have an extra long break today because of oral anatomy being so short so I checked out the cadaver labs, made sure I could find my way. Now I am sitting in Josh's lab trying to kill some time. I already prepared myself for the cadaver lab this afernoon and looked up some vocab words hat I new once upon a time so I am ready to go.

Today we are disecting the shoulder and chest area. Some of the highlights we will see are the pectoralis major and minor, the deltoid, the seratus anterior, and some arteries, veins, and nerves which I can't remember the names for.

It looks to be a long afternoon in the lab, at least 3 hours. Then Josh and I will catch the bus home. Hopefully we won't miss it. The last bus comes around 5:40, so if the lab goes longer than anticipated I might be walking...

Day 2

Well day two went much better than day one. For starters it was only a half day. We had some pretty boring speakers and a student awareness bs panel in the morning. Then we talked about financial aid, everyone perked up when we started talking about money (or lack there of). Then we went and had a very wonderful lunch at the Radisson ballroom with some business associates (proctor and gamble, midwest dental ect) and some Minnesota Dental Association Members. The MDA members sponsored each one of us incoming students and paid our first year membership. So I am now a member of the American Student Dental Association and the Minnesota Dental Association. They also presented us with a PDA (made by Dell, looks pretty nice, has a couple of really great games. To my family: there is a game like bubblet on it! I am pumped) Tomorrow we have to sit and listen for two hours on how to use this thing. I most likely won't even use it, except for the games. I am much more of a paper planner person.

Tomorrow we also get assigned our body buddies. They are the three other people that we share a cadaver with. I hope I have manly men who are excited to cut up the thing. Don't get me wrong, I would love to disect but sometimes I think I would rather sit back and direct.

Tonight Josh is at poker so I have the house to myself. I haven't decided if that is good or bad yet. It also means I don't have the car, which is ok, but I guess I am really too tired to go run errands anyways. However, I better get the grocery shopping done before Thursday, because I am pretty certain that most of my nights will be spent with my body buddies- all four of them.

My first day as a dental student

Well today was my first day of the rest of my life. I started my first of three days of orientation at 7:30 this morning. We had a full day of speakers, food, a tour, and pictures. My head is so crammed full of information, none of it having anything to do with teaching me how to be a dentist. We learned about all the clubs we can join, but yet we didn't even learn where our first class is... We still have two days of orientation left so hopefully we'll learn that some time.

These next four years are going to be tough. I was really nervous this morning but now I am excited to get going. Our first class is gross anatomy. We start on Thursday morning with cutting open the thoracic cavity of a cadaver.

Hopefully I will keep up with my blog more now that I have a more regular schedule. But for now I am off to relax after a very long and tiring day.