Surprise!

Ooohh my goodness. What a crazy weekend!! So on Wednesday my Mom let me know that my family from Canada were coming up for a short visit for the weekend. How nice! Gosh, I was super excited about that. An 8+ hour drive for the weekend? I felt so lucky that I would get to see them before heading out to med school.

We had such a blast together. Late night talks, long meals, even longer discussions... it was wonderful! After eating a huge lunch on Saturday and walking around the Chicago Botanical Garden, my cousin Rysio asked if I could take him to a computer store to check out some laptops for him. Sure! We walked around Best buy (which I feel like I could do forever; so much fun stuff that I can't afford) for over an hour. We played video games, chatted, and had a good time. I was glad that Rysio and I could have some one-on-one time together. After we left Best Buy, he asked if I could take him out for ice cream. No way! We were on our way to dinner at my brothers! No ice cream BEFORE dinner. :)

Jarek decided to drive us to the dinner at my brothers. I was a little annoyed at him because he was half an hour late (I hate being late!). I was worried that my sister-in-law, Gigi, would be annoyed for keeping everyone waiting. When we got to their house, the boys (my two nephews 10 and 8) were outside playing. They ran into the house and we went after them. When we walked through their new house for the first time (soo nice!), Gigi led me outside. When I stepped out to the porch all of a sudden..... SURPRISE!!!!



Instead of my parents,aunt, and uncle, there were 25+ people yelling surprise. Ohh my goodness!! I had absolutely NO idea what this was about. I was so shocked that I think I turned around at one point to see if this was for someone else. Wow! A surprise party for me? What? Wait, why? Haha. My closest family and friends had been planning a surprise graduation/going away party for me for weeks! And I didn't know about it! I'm usually soo good about guessing surprises or making my mom tell me, but I had no clue about this one! Ohhhh, so THAT'S why my family from Canada came up only for a few days. Ohhhh, so THAT'S why Rysio tried to stall at Best Buy and with ice cream. Ohh so that's why Jarek was late. Oh my goodness. I totally fell for it all! I was really touched by the party.

After four years of overcoming challenges at Smith by myself or with the help of my parents, it was really overwhelming to see such loving open support from my family and friends. Everyone wanted to congratulate me and wish me luck. Gosh, it was so amazingly wonderful!

I have to admit that I was stayed surprised throughout the night. Was this really for me? Wow, these people care about me so much. What did I do to deserve this? Wow! For one of the first times, I was really embarrassed to have so much attention on me! I really enjoyed being able to have one-on-one conversations with these old family and friends. They offered such sincere congratulations and such honest and caring advice. I was so grateful!! Some great advice: "Don't forget to have time for life; you are only young once so enjoy it while you can." "Don't forget to learn how to take care of patients that might not always be able to afford the best treatment."

My dad also gave a really nice speech during dinner for me. We may disagree a lot (out of our shared stubbornness) but there was no doubt in my mind that my dad and everyone there that night really loved me and cared about me. I feel so grateful for the love and support of my family and friends. I'm so grateful for all the effort that had to go into planning the party, coming to the party, and hosting the party. Thank you all so much. I couldn't think of a more perfect way to end the summer in Chicago.

A place to live!

Yay! I have an apartment! It's quite possibly the coolest one in Cleveland (and I can say that because I looked at tons!).

So here's the scoop on the hottest place ever: it's brand new! I will be the first person to live there. Soo hot!

My parents and I went to see the first apartment and from the look on my parents faces, the realtor knew RIGHT AWAY not to mess with us. Haha. We were really lucky to see the apartment because it isn't officially being shown yet. It's soo hot! And I'm very excited! I think the coolest part about the apartment (besides the fact that it's MINE) is that I have my own washer and dryer in the apartment; I won't have to worry about people stealing my stuff. Sweet!

It's really cool to know that I have a place to live. Slowly but surely I'm starting to feel more ready to move to Cleveland. Now that I have a place to live, I'm obsessing about exciting things like color schemes and furniture arrangements. Ooo! I want it to be *hot!*

Here are some pics. Remember that it's not finished yet! I will have a floor! :)



The lease! Soo serious!

Apartment shopping

I'm returning to Cleveland on Monday to check out apartments for a second time. Gosh, there are so many cool apartments and for a pretty decent price in the area! As of now, I'm narrowing down my search by making sure that the apartment is walking distance to the med school campus; I def don't want to be dealing with parking my first year!

I'm going with my dad to Cleveland. Aah a whole day with my dad? Let's keep our fingers crossed that we don't kill each other in the first hour or so. :) Our tempers aside, I'm really glad that he is going with me. I have to admit that I'm a little overwhelmed with the choices that go into finding an apartment, especially for the first time. I'm glad that I have a real adult to help me make some decisions. :)

It's also starting to get really hot in Chicago. Recently, I've been using any excuse that I can get my hands on to avoid going on runs. When did running stop being fun for me? I want to return to feeling healthy but somehow forcing myself to run near a four lane road isn't always the most enjoyable thing. I really hope that I can find a more enjoyable way of staying fit before medical starts.

Some thoughts about becoming an adult (?!!)

It's so weird. When I was getting ready to go to Smith, my first time away from home, 1000s of miles away, not knowing a single person, I was not scared at all (or at least that I can remember). Now that I've had a few years of living on my "own" (Smith-style), gained 4 years of experience and maturity (supposedly), you would think that moving away again would not be as terrifying as it really is. It's so hard for me to realize that in only a few weeks, I'm going to have to start all over again. New friends. New places. Introductions. New names. My concerns are ones that I feel that I should have overcome in grade school. What if I don't make any friends? What if I get homesick? What if I don't like it there?

And as all these concerns run through my mind I have to admit that the question of whether I'm really ready to do any of this comes up again and again. Can I really be responsible for other people's lives as a doctor, if I am worried about being able to take care of myself? For now, I'm trying to push all the doubt back and have faith in myself and take babysteps along the way.

It's just so crazy to think about it all. Am I really ready to be an adult? Live on my own? Have my own apartment? Be responsible for all that comes with that? Balance my budget without having my parents as backup plans? Wow. When did this all happen?? Am I really ready?

Smith was such a nice transition for me from high school only child living at home to college living. But did all the perks at Smith put me at a disadvantage for starting the real world living? I'm going to really miss having my friends live next door, being able to chat at any time of the day with them, eating meals with them. Man! Because I'm not planning on having a roommate I am worried that I will end up eating most of my meals alone in my apartment, by myself. OMG, I'm going to be such a looooser! What do other people do? Isn't eating alone a sign of a problem? Wait, maybe that's drinking. Or is eating alone a problem too? Gosh, I hope I figure this all out soon!

More about Smith

Now that I'm not typing underlined any more, I can continue with obsessing about Smith! So after all of the fun of Miami, it was time for us all to go back to Smith and finish the semester together. I went through all the motions of senior activities in denial that this really was senior year and that our days together were numbered. King House Senior Banquet was insane! The prophecies and songs were so funny, or maybe we just thought they were because the underclasswomen were getting us drunk. :) My prophecy included something about becoming a really stylist doctor and saving the world but then deciding to become the first female Pope and making the position super hot. Haha. Meredith, Salina, Christine, and I had a blast together! Some of the craziness:




The next day we had senior ball. Aren't all my friends gorgeous?! The food was amazing but it was so surreal to see all of our class together that night; I saw people that I hadn't seen since first year!

Hotties:




After the senior activities, the end of the year came really quickly. We spent senior week going to Montreal, going to Mohegan Sun casino, and packing up our lives slowly, but surely. Before we knew it, our families were here!

Smith! Over?

I still can't believe that I'm done with Smith! My last year was definitely the most enjoyable. Even though I kept myself busy with applying to schools, interviewing all over the place, and writing my thesis, senior year was the most fun ever.

I have a wonderful group of friends at Smith to thank for that. Our group came together early in the fall and there just was no stopping us then. From winter weekend partying (friends forever!), to late night "study" sessions, to the OC and ANTM... we got off to a great start. Here is a pic of us hotties when it all started in Winter Weekend.

We quickly became an inseparable crew going to meals at the Asian house (Comstock/Wilder), claiming our table at King/Scales, and at abs class. After breaking for Jterm (my first one away from Smith), we returned to Smith to enjoy our last semester together in style. Especially fun was a trip to Miami for WMC 2006; I still can't believe that we danced until the morning, slept until the late afternoon, and ended up only eating once a day! Crazy!

Here are a few pics from Miami madness:

It was all so fun! These girls are the best! :)

I'm not sure why all my writing is underlined now. Weird. I'll work on fixing that. :)

First post!

Hi everyone!

Although I've kept a journal on/off for most of my life, I've become waay too computer-dependent to write in it anymore (writing by hand is sooo slow!). I definitely want to remember and share everything that has been going on in my life. So many big changes have happened in such a short amount of time: graduating from Smith, leaving my friends, returning to Chicago, getting accepted into med school (!!!!!), preparing for *another* big move in a few weeks, realizing that I have to become a responsible "adult" asap... so much craziness.

More posts to come on all of the above. :)

More than anything else, I hope that you can use this website to check up on how I'm doing (hopefully surviving med school) and my reactions to it all. I have a feeling that these next few years are going to be hectic and busy. In case I start slacking on keeping you in touch with everything, please check this website to check up on me.

P.S. Thanks to Miss Eve for giving me the idea for starting a blog; Can you believe that she is blogging in Uganda? Crazy!