A-lo-ha!

A little delayed, but here is the picture we took at the end of our 2nd week. Love the amount of colour and the fact that we all look so happy (and well rested)!!

appealing to the population

Stumbled on this video.
In theme with my last post on breast cancer, this is a great way to catch attention and motivate women. I think using social media to really expose underlying issues and raise awareness is the new stream of public health promotion - especially when targeting the younger generations.



Even if the number of self-checks don't increase, I think it will become one of those "viral" videos or at the least catch attention... which is what it was meant to do in the first place.
Innovative idea.
What do you think?

Be aware, it's October.

October is breast cancer awareness month. Be aware.

my new necklace.

Breast cancer, unfortunately, affects almost everyone. So why not raise awareness about the importance of noticing self changes and performing self examinations.

The women's medical student association (WMSA) held our annual community event today! We walked around 'the bottom' and had a short informative session about breast cancer and how to raise awareness (including a great demo using breast models from the school to break the stigma/ embarrassment around doing self breast exams).

The turn out was great... see for yourself :)

I had a chance to talk to some friendly Saba locals about the impact breast cancer has had on their life.
successful study break?! I think so.

Takin' it easy

Sushi dinner on friday night!

After all the stress and frustration third semester has caused, a group of us caught a great deal on flights to St. Maarten and needless to say we made a trip  of it! Spent two nights in st. maarten and a full day at Orient beach (on the French side). It was so nice to be able to relax and hang out with friends outside of school.



Highlights?
Great food, swimming at 4 o'clock in the morning, enjoying island music, cocktails on the beach, sea-doos,  driving around st. Maarten in our rental cars and many ... adventures :)

finally got all 3 of us in the air!... only took 20 tries 

Amazing weekend. Can't say I came back well rested, but it definitely helped clear my head and de-stress. Ready to jump right back into it for the second half of the semester as long as this cold/flu doesn't get the best of me.

A 2 day vacation can do wonders on motivation.



here we go... 2 months till christmas break.

on our way back to Saba 

3.2

What a hectic day. 3 exams between 8am and 3pm. Fun!

Glad to say this block went much better all round than first. Not where I want to be but it will hopefully get there.... lesson learned? hard work pays off. Second lesson? my body doesn't respond as well to lack of sleep as it did in undergrad. I used to be able to pull all nighters (without the aid of caffeine or energy drinks - so bad for you) and now 4 hours of sleep did not suffice. Probably because undergrad is no where near the intensity and pressure of medical school.

__________________________

As a side note, I've been trying to get a new page at the top of the blog going for posting ongoing hobbies, interesting topics and the like - pretty much anything outside the medical school world (when it comes into existence after each set of exams). However, I couldn't seem to figure out how to do multiple posts.. so if anyone knows please send directions my way :)

Till then, I wanted to share this with you... super cool for a sci-fi reading nerd like me (don't make fun!)

books to read...It's been added on to my bucket list (still in the making but I think I will post a temporary one soon just so I can start checking things off :) )
For those new sci-fi lovers out there I would also recommend anything by Aldous Huxley.