So after the Step 3, the first thing I did was rent a lot of books from the library and see a ton of shows. This is why I can't move out of my 500 euro / month hole in the wall that is my room, because I keep spending money on other things!
Here's my brief synopses of the ones I saw:
1) After Miss Julie with Sienna Miller - interesting play, not my type of thing but interesting nonetheless. She's this young aristocrat who seduces one of her servants and the ensuing emotional turmoil begins between them as the dynamic between them shifts. Fairly good acting on her part, it must be difficult doing such an emotionally exhaustive role.
2) Oleanna with Julia Stiles and Bill Pullman - again, very good acting, and the concepts discussed throughout the play are provocative, but not really my thing. A little bit wordy and far-reaching. She plays this student who goes to her professor (Bill Pullman) for help, but as he tries to help her she misconstrues his words into sexual harrassment and ends up ruining his life. Her character is quite annoying, but that's the emotion this play is trying to provoke.
3) The Understudy - Julie White, Justin Kirk, Mark Paul-Gosselaar (hottie!) . This play was really funny, and very witty. Not as creative as 33 Variations but very cool anyway. This was about two actors (one understudy to an understudy essentially) and a stage manager trying to produce of kafka play, so there's all these Kafka references which are pretty amusing. I like "intelligent" plays that are funnier if you know what the jokes elude to. Very good acting as well, a little overdone on the cursing but cest la vie.
4) A Steady Rain - Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig (both hotties!) . Interesting play, again not quite my thing but good acting. Very verbal play, not much action. It was a sort of "human" play too as both actors messed up lines or tripped over their tongue occasionally, but hey, they were forced to do American accents for 90 minutes. What was hilarious though was that after the show, they were trying to promote donations for Broadway cares, so they ended up unbuttoning their shirts and displaying their wifebeaters. Daniel Craig had marked his right and left breasts on his wifebeater, and then they auctioned their wifebeaters off for the crowd - an actual auction in the theater. And both wifebeaters went for $7000! They raised $14000 for broadway cares (damn!) and watching this was really funny / exciting. Then they invited people to come backstage to take pictures with them for a mere donation of $2000. Damn...some day I might have that kind of money to throw around...jeez.
5) In the Next Room or The vibrator Play - Laura Benanti (always one of my favorites), Michael Cerveris. This was a really creative play, and the character Benanti plays is brilliant. She's this really enthusiastic, curious young wife with tons of personality. Her husband is a doctor who basically ends up inventing these vibrators to help people overcome "hysteria" / depression / etc. in an age when no one even had a notion of orgasms. So he treats all these patients who obviously love this treatment and she's very curious but he won't really discuss it with her because she's not sick. It ends up delving into the fabric of their relationship . At the end for some rather funny reason it ends up with this make out scene and him ending up completely butt naked. Anyway, it was good.
Oh, and I also went with one of my friends to see the Rob Thomas concert, which was pretty good of course, he's got a great voice. And he pulled John McEnroe (yes the tennis player) on stage to play one of his riffs!! And he was really good, who knew John McEnroe could play guitar well!
So I guess seeing all these makes up for no travel for vacation. I'm going home for Thanskgiving next week. And I get to catch up with some things around here (woo) although I'm not doing a very good job of it!
I've also blown a crapload of moolah on toys for myself, got an awesome dslr to start playing with so hopefully I can have fantastic photos of NZ / Oz when I go in January and shoot happily around central park. Also got some of those fancy noise-cancelling headphones that I wish I'd had during Step 3 study in Barnes and Noble. Wooo.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
FREE FROM THE USMLE!! (I hope?!)
The last couple months have been a whirlwind. I just finished sitting Step 3, and honestly, those USMLE people need some help. I take objection to being the subject of some sexually-repressed exam writers who felt it necessary to shove very graphic displays of every penile or vaginal wart possible on my screen with some chancres thrown in for good measure. Obviously 1-2 questions are inevitable, but come on, 15+ ? I really really really do not need to see 15 nasty members of genitalia on my exam, with the new technologically advanced screens they have in the Prometric centers. Nor did I really need to see that xray of a very Sex-and-the-City-ish object shoved some place where it just did not belong, and which I'm sure had a very disturbing story behind how it got there. Nor did I need to be placed right by the door so that every single person entering or exiting the room could glance at my screen. Yes, I did hear an "OH THAT'S SO GROSS" at one point. I'm thinking of writing in to those people and filing a complaint against my excessively obscene exam. I can't believe this is what passes as a medical licensing exam these days!
Anyway, I'm on Ortho rotation now, which I'm finding very disappointing. It's like med school again where you're watching the consultant do history and physical and some very boring pathological findings. And this is coming from me, who absolutely loves Ortho. So needless to say, my attendance has waned.
In October, I did PICU (peds ICU) at one of our peripheral hospitals. Before going into that rotation I was apprehensive because I wasn't that comfortably handling very sick kids. The exposure was good, treating kids with diseases I've never even heard of before. But I found their way of running the PICU and "teaching" residents management of kids was a bit odd - a lot of times it was like trial by fire. My fellow residents were pretty cool and I did not in any way feel like my knowledge was sub-par, and there was one particular resident who annoyed the hell out of me (and her hair really really really reeked too). I hear she's book smart but wow, clinically that really did not come out. The q4 long call was pretty exhausting and there were times I didn't sleep because of coding kids (that was pretty awful). Definitely glad to have my call rotations out of the way and no more WCMC! I really enjoyed my time at WCMC and the pathology is great, but not having to commute and live up there for months at a time is awesome.
In September, part of my month was Ultrasound. I covered night shift sick call frequently so therefore missed most of it. So I really am not comfortably with my level of ultrasound knowledge at this stage. This is something I'm going to have to work on.
Anyway, am now on vacation and free for a little bit. I was all set to go back to Dublin for yet another DULBC dinner, and I was realy looking forward to it. But unfortunately not enough alumni replied, we couldn't get the funds and after a stressful weekend of phone calls and emails, we had to cancel the even to avoid a 1000 euro loss. So after we made this decision, I cancelled my flights to Dublin... there's no point going and spending the money for catching up with one or two people. Such a shame. So now I'm spending my vacation time helping out my program for interview season. And of course, seeing a ton of shows!
Anyway, I'm on Ortho rotation now, which I'm finding very disappointing. It's like med school again where you're watching the consultant do history and physical and some very boring pathological findings. And this is coming from me, who absolutely loves Ortho. So needless to say, my attendance has waned.
In October, I did PICU (peds ICU) at one of our peripheral hospitals. Before going into that rotation I was apprehensive because I wasn't that comfortably handling very sick kids. The exposure was good, treating kids with diseases I've never even heard of before. But I found their way of running the PICU and "teaching" residents management of kids was a bit odd - a lot of times it was like trial by fire. My fellow residents were pretty cool and I did not in any way feel like my knowledge was sub-par, and there was one particular resident who annoyed the hell out of me (and her hair really really really reeked too). I hear she's book smart but wow, clinically that really did not come out. The q4 long call was pretty exhausting and there were times I didn't sleep because of coding kids (that was pretty awful). Definitely glad to have my call rotations out of the way and no more WCMC! I really enjoyed my time at WCMC and the pathology is great, but not having to commute and live up there for months at a time is awesome.
In September, part of my month was Ultrasound. I covered night shift sick call frequently so therefore missed most of it. So I really am not comfortably with my level of ultrasound knowledge at this stage. This is something I'm going to have to work on.
Anyway, am now on vacation and free for a little bit. I was all set to go back to Dublin for yet another DULBC dinner, and I was realy looking forward to it. But unfortunately not enough alumni replied, we couldn't get the funds and after a stressful weekend of phone calls and emails, we had to cancel the even to avoid a 1000 euro loss. So after we made this decision, I cancelled my flights to Dublin... there's no point going and spending the money for catching up with one or two people. Such a shame. So now I'm spending my vacation time helping out my program for interview season. And of course, seeing a ton of shows!
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