February has to be one of my favorite months thus far! I'm so happy to have experienced my first Mardi Gras!! It was everything I expected and more. Being from New Jersey, I have never really celebrated it before. I was blown away by the beautiful floats and the fun atmosphere...and well being able to see two amazing country music stars (that I'm obsessed with) Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley!
Besides for our wonderful (yet way too short) spring break, the month has been full of studying. I can't believe that Med Pharm will be officially over next Thursday! and our shelf exam is quickly approaching! I'm getting a little bit stressed thinking about having to memorize all the drugs we have learned this year....
On the volunteering front, I have enjoyed my on going involvement with the nutrition class at SAAK. This week was Protein week! Aubrey and I taught the kids about why protein is important, where we can find it in our diet, and how much we need in a day. In the cooking part of the class, we made healthy chicken nuggets. The kids were really excited and shocked at how easy it was - only 7 ingredients!
At ESY, the kindergarteners continue to brighten up my days. In honor of Mardi Gras, the kids focused on the letter Q for QUEEN cake [yes not king cake - girls are important too :)], quesadillas, quinoa, and quince jelly. I really enjoyed going over the meanings of the mardi gras colors with the kids. Prior to the class, I myself never questioned why the colors were green, gold, and purple and I'm happy to learn they stand for faith, power, and justice, respectively.
Over at Touro, Andrew and I had the opportunity to see another chest X-ray, this time of a lung cancer patient. It was really interesting to see how the cancer manifests. In particular, we saw that often cancer cells cause swelling in the lungs due to osmotic pressure and how it can metastases to organs (particularly the shoulder) surrounding it.
Okay that's it for now... back to MCAT studying!
February hours:
ESY: 3
SAAK: 1
Touro: 3.5
February total: 7.5
Semester total: 26.5 hours
