Archive for June, 2005
One week to go
June 14th, 2005Title says it all…one more week until this slow, boring suffering is over.
Year 2: passed
June 20th, 2005Wow, the (almost) unthinkable happened: I passed our Year 2 comprehensive exam. I was almost sure I’d failed and was already making tentative plans how to accomodate the make up exam into my schedule for the next 2 weeks, which required shuffling around a trip to Hawaii.
But no need, since I passed…with plenty of room to spare too. I guess I’m now half a doctor. Just call me Amir Schricker, M.
I guess I should be thinking about tomorrow’s boards, though…just 24 hours away.
Boards are over!
June 21st, 2005Yup…after 2 months of 60-hour study weeks, 7 days a week, boards are done!
Luckily there weren’t too many topics on the exam that were completely new to me (but there were definitely a few) I still don’t see why we should be required to memorize so many random basic science facts, but luckily First Aid made it clear what we had to know.
Anyway, now that the USMLE is over, it’s time to come out of hiding and rejoin the world. It’s about time I cleaned the house, updated this site, and took care of my poor fish. Oh…and pack for my Hawaii trip on Thursday.
Hawaii 2005
June 29th, 2005With boards done, it was time for a serious vacation, and luckily Hawaii was just across the ocean. Despite a miserable and cramped American Airlines flight — so much for their “more leg room” advertisements — the trip was awesome…lots of time in the water and lots of time drinking mai tais. Here are some highlights:
- Ricky’s friend who lives in Hawaii hooked us up with scuba diving trips, and we got to go diving four times! Diving in tropical waters is much different than diving off the coast of California. Instead of wearing 7 millimeter, full-length wetsuits, a simple 3 millimeter half-length wetsuit was enough to keep us warm at 100 feet of depth.
- In our most exciting dive we’ve ever done, we went wreck diving and visited the Sea Tiger, a ship which brought over Chinese immigrants years ago and was sunk 10 year ago off the coast of Oahu. At over 100 feet deep, this was more than three times deeper than we’d ever dove.
- While on the topic, I highly recommend Dive Oahu, a great dive shop with almost all-new diving equipment, a friendly and experienced crew, and boat trips with less less than 15 people per boat.
- Booze cruise! Some people might call it an evening mai tai cruise, but we all know what it really is. I actually wasn’t looking forward to this because I thought it’d be too touristy, but it turned out to be one of the most relaxing and enjoyable events of the trip. Try one if you go to Hawaii.
That’s all for now, so check out my Photo Gallery for photos of the trip.