Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've been up to a lot since my last post!  I should really write more often...

A couple weeks ago, I went bowling with my FAST group and another FAST group.  For those of you  not in the know, FAST stands for "Faculty and Students Together."  The name is cheesy, I admit!  Each group consists of a faculty advisor, two MS2's, and five MS1's.  I'm pretty sure I have the best group!  We ditched our genetics syllabus for a few hours and enjoyed pizza at the other group's advisor's house and then a couple rounds of bowling at a cute little alley in Squirrel Hill.  While I didn't do horribly, let's just say bowling is not my calling...I'll stick to med school!

I don't think we have enough bowling balls...

My acapella group had another performance, this time in the Heinz Chapel, a gorgeous Gothic-style chapel in which my mom SWEARS I'll be getting married sometime in the future... :P  The acoustics were amazing.  I don't even think we needed the microphones.  Even our warmups sounded great!

I apologize for the poor quality of the picture, it was taken on my phone!

So after all that fun stuff, we took our genetics final.  But the second that thing was over, I was on my way home for Thanksgiving!!! I was very much looking forward to seeing my family, meeting my brand new nephew, snuggling with my puppy, and, of course, eating some delicious food!!

Here is my "puppy" (aka a lovable 6 y/o 100lb black lab/MOOSE) impatiently waiting for his chance to lick my empty yogurt cup clean.  He is so cute!!!

Are you done yet? Are you done yet?  Huh? huh? Are you done now?  My turn?  *drools*

Thanksgiving was great!  I had no academic obligations (well I did, I just chose to ignore them) so it was nice to take a break for a few days and just relax with family.  My brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew came up from Alabama for the holiday, and of course my sister, brother-in-law and 2 nephews in the north came down for dinner as well.  It was a full house!!  Next year will be crazy with 4 kiddos running around!  This year I was very excited because I finally got to cook something!  I made the stuffing, and I also made two appetizers - a healthy spinach artichoke dip and honey lime shrimp (funny story behind that...).  I'll make a separate post about those!

Not much has happened after break.  We started a new course, "Cellular and Pathological Basis of Disease," aka Cell Bio, and it's pretty interesting so far.  I have to do some major practicing for our physical exam class, as we're expected to be able to do a full physical exam in just a couple weeks!  Eek!  Where does time go???

Tonight I volunteered at a soup kitchen in the basement of a gorgeous church in East Liberty.  Every night, a different group of people comes in to cook a meal for about 40 men who eat and then sleep there overnight.  I went with a group of students from the med school, who go once a month, but this was my first time.  We try to serve a healthy, well-balanced meal to encourage healthy eating.  The meal tonight was chicken and baked potatoes with cooked broccoli, mushrooms, and onions.  I helped to butterfly the chicken breasts into two thin pieces and then helped to season them.  Everything smelled so good!  After dinner, we got to chat with some of the men and practiced taking their blood pressure.  It was my first time taking a BP on someone who was not a classmate or family member, and I did pretty well!  It was very fulfilling to step away from school for a night and help to provide fresh, healthy food to people in a nearby community.  I can't wait to go again!

That's some well-seasoned chicken!

It smelled amazing!!!

Stay tuned for some cooking posts!