Parasitology Flashback

During my undergrad, I took a course in parasitology, or the study of parasites.  While this class didn't provide me with a lot of information I can use (outside of cool small talk, unless I visit third world countries), it was hands down one of the most interesting classes I have ever taken.  One of the creepy critters we learned about was called Dicrocoelium dentriticum, and it has one of the craziest life-cycles of any organism ever.  The comedic genius at The Oatmeal has illustrated said life-cycle.  Please enjoy.

And that pretty much sums up one of the coolest pieces of knowledge in my head.  Special thanks to The Oatmeal for helping spread (hehe) something so crazy awesome.  Well played, Captain, indeed.

The Little Walk That Turned Into a Big Walk

So tonight we decided to take a little walk to the nearest branch of our public library.  This is the approximate route we planned to take (approximate because the starting point isn't actually our home address, but it gives a good enough idea of routes and distances):


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So yeah, 1.7 miles and half an hour each way.  However, it turns out that we don't know those neighborhoods very well (especially on foot), and we didn't have a GPS with us, nor did we print out a map or write out any sort of directions.  So this is the the route we actually took to get there (scroll up a little so that the whole blue line is visible--it's not wanting to default to a good view):


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Yup, 3.9 miles and almost an hour and a half.  After we had walked so far south, we called the library to ask for directions.  And then turned around and walked the other way for a while.  We finally made it to the library with the DVDs we had checked out last week.  We had 15 minutes until the library closed to browse the shelves for more stuff to watch, and then began our trek home.  Rather than taking the direct route (whoops), this is how we came home:


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Yup, 2.2 miles.  And that was .5 miles more than it would have been if we had followed Jess' suggestion to turn left on Greensview instead of right.  Alas, my directional sense failed me tonight (where are you, mountains?) and I lengthened our expedition.  In order to pass the time, Jess had me tell her scary stories (because we were walking through dark neighborhoods without streetlights--what??).  The first was about large amounts of student loan debt.  The second was based on a story told around the campfire at scout camp by a good buddy of mine.  It was about a creepy dude named Stubbs, who lost his limbs from being run over by a train, then grew extremely long nails / claws out of those stubs.  He runs around on all fours and is just in general a scary character.

So our trip that was supposed to be about 3.4 miles total and a little over an hour and a half turned into a 6 mile journey that took three and a half hours.  Yikes.

White Coat Ceremony

First thing first.  I was able to get the parking ticket situation resolved.  An email came out on Thursday telling us what to do (I wasn't the only one who got a ticket).  It was simply a matter of going to the Traffic and Parking office and paying $5 for a "day pass" for the day before.  While I was a little bugged, I was much happier to pay $5 than $50.  But I've still got a lot to figure out about parking at / around the university.  One of the only things that I don't like.  Now on to more ceremonial things.

Monday afternoon, Jess and I headed over to the student union building.  It's a new building, finished earlier this year, and it's really pretty nice.  The ceremony was held in one of the ballrooms upstairs.

Pretty stuff hanging from ceiling of the ballroom

Nearly all of the 200 or so new students were there, many with members of their family present (probably more than had RSVP'd, because there weren't enough seats for everybody).

There we are, before all the action started.

I could actually see Jess taking the picture, thus my smile at the camera.

We then heard from some of the higher-ups at the med school, several of whom shared some nice things about what it means to be a doctor, and the symbolism of the white coat (integrity, trust, etc).  After the speeches were done, we were called up row by row to receive our new short white coats (you get a long one once you get your MD) that were embroidered with our names on them (very cool).

Your coat is placed on you by members of the administration, and several handshakes and "good luck"s and "you'll do great"s are given.  This was a cool ceremony and a cool milestone.  Unfortunately, it was also kind of boring, like a graduation ceremony.  So I'm glad that I don't have to do this too often.  After all of the hoopla, we shuffled over to another room where ice cream was provided and mingled for a bit.  We snapped a few pictures on our way out, and then I hung up my coat in my closet when we got home because, as far as I know, I probably won't be wearing for two more years when I begin my clinical rotations.  But it's still spiffy.

Also, here's an official news post about it from the College of Medicine.

Like Sands Through the Hourglass, This Was the Longest Day of Our Lives

We recently had the wonderful opportunity to return to Utah for my little sister's wedding.  This was made immensely more affordable (read: possible) by a good friend who had access to buddy passes with a particular airline.  Most emphatically, I do not want this post to come across as ungrateful.  We're so glad that we could use the passes and make it back for such a special occasion.  And the trip back home to Ohio was uneventful and worked out great, so no worries there.  However, the flight out to Utah was something that we'll probably never forget.  Here's why...

Highlights / summary:
- 22 hour day.
- Feet in all four time zones across the contiguous US in one day.
- Annoying televisions in most of the airports (turns out that most daytime tv really sucks--wait, I already knew this).
- Annoying people in some.
- A lot more people flying than expected, and thus:
- Lots of full flights with not enough room for everyone on standby.

We awoke at 4am eastern (that's 2am mountain time) to have time to finish packing before we began our epic journey.  We left the apartment at 5, and were at the airport around 5:30.  We drove ourselves, and some great friends were willing to come pick up our car (and us when we got home) so that we wouldn't have to pay $50 for a week of parking.  We split a tasty Chili's breakfast burrito at the airport (only $8!) right before boarding.  The first flight left Columbus for Chicago at 6:30, and we got on without any trouble.

Chicago was another story.  We spent most of the time running from gate to gate (fortunately, just once to another terminal and back), getting on the standby list of any flight heading west.  For the first couple hours, we were a little more selective because we wanted to fly to Denver, then to Salt Lake.  No dice.  So we kept trying, and would be standing next to a new gate every 20 minutes or so, listening and hoping that our names would be called.  Finally we were able to get on a flight to Omaha, Nebraska.

In Omaha, waiting for a flight.

The airport in Omaha was much smaller than the one in Chicago.  This was good because it wasn't so stinking crowded.  This was bad because there were far fewer flights leaving the city.  We arrived around 1pm central, and hoped to catch one of two flights around 2:30.  We split a Godfather's personal pan pizza for lunch (~$5, probably one of our better food deals at the airport--the other was Popeye's in Vegas) and waited until 5:30 when a flight was leaving for Phoenix, and another for Vegas.  During the wait, the tv droned on and on in the background, playing Days of their Lives, and a handful of other soap opera dreck that all looked the same.  Boo.  After sitting and waiting for a while, my legs needed some stretching.  I stood up and stretched various ways while reading my book, and this initiated a conversation with a nice old couple sitting across from us.  Apparently I was an odd sight.  Anyway, we lucked out and were able to board the one to Vegas.  After thanking the airline employee profusely, we hefted our carryons and got on the plane.

We arrived in Vegas around 6pm, with two more flights leaving for SL before morning.  We were unable to get on the flight at 6:55, so we started looking at our options. 1) We could rent a car and drive to SL, arriving probably around 2 or 3am.  Once we looked at pricing, though (~$200 plus gas for just one night), we changed our minds.  2) We could get a hotel room for the night for about $30 and then catch the 6am flight the next morning.  This was a pretty good option, but I didn't want to deal with shuttles and such.  Lazy, I know.  3) Have a sleepover at the airport!  What with the bouncing floor and noisy slot machines, it would have been a long night.  We hadn't finalized our decision by the time the next flight was boarding.

We sat, listening, but couldn't hear anything the gate agent was saying.  We could see that she was talking into the PA, but for the first time that day, we couldn't pick up what the agent had said.  So we hustled over to her to check and see if, just maybe, we had been called.  Sure enough, she had called our names twice and we hadn't heard a thing.  Lucky for us we checked.  So we got on the plane and Jess was lucky enough to babysit a 7 year old and 9 year old the whole flight home.

We arrived in SL, exhausted but happy, at about midnight.  My folks were kind enough to come pick us up (and we'd had a couple other offers from wonderful friends and family to do the same) and shuttle us back to their place where we crashed (in the sleeping sense, not the automobile sense).

So yeah, a rough day for flying, but we were grateful that we could do it on the cheap, and for all of the support that the buddy pass friend gave us throughout the day, helping us find the flights we needed and such.  And now we're really happy to be back home in Ohio.  Med school orientation begins tomorrow morning.  Here we go!